A Beast Unto Herself
by LilithBrandon
Summary: AU: Bella's just trying to earn a living and protect her tribe. Being the only shapeshifter in La Push sucks sometimes. Hopefully it won't be that way for too long. Bella/Leah
1. Lone Wolf

_A/N:_ Disclaimer: All rights to Twilight, the accompanying characters, plot lines, etc. belong to Stephanie Meyer. This is a new one I've been poking at for a while with a _Mercedes Thompson_ kind of Bella. Your comments, reviews, and or questions are always welcome. Bella/Leah, with very little fap material. I'm trying to keep this one PG-13.

**Chapter 1**

_March 5, 2005, Saturday_

I had just pulled the garage door down when I heard the familiar running gate of my little brother approaching from the back of the shop. He's not in the best of shape, but that wouldn't last for very long with the Cullens still in town.

"Bella!" he yelled as I heard the door bang onto the side of the building.

I really had to put a lock on that thing. It wasn't so much that I thought I'd be robbed. That happened once. Only once. The white people have pretty much kept to themselves ever since. Once I tracked the thief down, I beat the crap out of him, strung him up by his ankles onto a light pole eight feet above the street, and duct taped a massage to his hairy privates.

_Thieves are not tolerated on the Rez. _

"I'm in the garage!" I yelled back as I moved over to the workbench to clean and hang my tools for the day.

I'm not by any means rich, but I've earn enough to buy my own tools, and put down monthly payments on the garage I'm leasing to own. It's one of the perks of being a Quileute I suppose. With only a little less than four hundred tribe members left in our little nation we tend to support each other as best as we can. Nobody is rich here.

Jake dodged the '71 Camaro I was working on for most of the afternoon and came to a sliding stop beside the workbench where I was wiping down a few sockets.

"There is some serious shit going on," he said while trying to catch his breath.

"Language. If dad hears you cussing again…"

"Whatever," he said blowing the reprimand off. "Dad told me to make sure you get this."

He tossed a folded newspaper on the bench to the side of where I was working. _Ripper Slays Tourists, _the headline read for the Portland Tribune. I frowned at the article. It started in Big Ben down in California and began working its way up the coast, vicious murders in every semi-major city every other day for the last two weeks.

Mustering up the best boredom face I could manage I looked at him. "And this concerns me how?"

He shrugged. "Looks like the Ripper is heading our way."

I shook my head. "He or she only hits bigger cities, Jake. I think we're cool for now."

When I reached for the can of Varsol to get the tough grease out of the nooks of my ratchet I caught my brother taking an opportune glance down my top. I don't wear a whole lot in the shop other than jeans, work boots, and a tank.

"Could you not perv on my boobs, please."

Jake went as white as a Quileute could be for about half a second before pulling it back together. "Dude, I do not perv on you. That's just… ugh!"

"Please don't call me dude. Do I look like a dude?"

That was the main problem. Ever since I sprouted a mystical puberty I was every teen boy's wet dream. It really wasn't his fault. I blame his hormones the most. It wasn't like he was making passes at me or anything; still it was kind of creepy to have your brother checking you out.

He eyed me for a second and then looked around the shop. "Well, you _are_ a mechanic."

I punched him on the upper arm a little bit harder than I meant and he flinched, grabbing at his shoulder. "Ow! What the hell, Bella?"

"Don't be a misogynistic asshole like Lahote, Jake. I swear I will beat you to death if you start that shit, brother or no brother."

He pressed his lips together to stop himself from saying anything and then took a couple steps back to increase the distance between us.

"I need to get home. Dad's probably making Hamburger Helper again."

"See you later, little brother."

I felt kind of bad for running him off like that. There was once a time that I wasn't a hard-ass. It was about nine months ago when I was seventeen and carefree. Dad scraped up enough money to let me attend a mechanic's camp near Port Angeles. It was just for six weeks, but we got to put together a '65 Mustang from scratch. We did other summer camp stuff, but most of our time was spent in a dream shop with all the latest and greatest equipment. It was at the end of camp that I met my first vampire.

At first I thought I was experiencing the growth spurt from hell. I shot up five inches in two weeks and put on about twenty pounds of lean muscle. The guys there thought I was teasing them wearing all the tight clothes. They were just too stupid to realize they were simply too small.

A kid went missing. His body was found a few days later with his neck torn apart and half-buried in the ground under a bunch of leaves. The next day I was burning up and pissed at the guys for finishing the transmission on the Mustang without me. I ran off in the woods to sulk and bumped into mister pale and stinky. The next thing I knew I'd exploded out of my clothes, ripped his head off, and promptly freaked out. I think I turned into a gigantic dog somewhere in there somewhere, but I wasn't quite sure. It's not like there are mirrors out in the wilderness.

By the way, he tasted awful.

When I figured out how to turn back into a human I freaked out again, snuck back into camp, clothed myself and called my dad to come pick me up. I got a tribal elder instead, Harry Clearwater.

He was the one that taught me that I had to burn the things after I ripped them apart. He was also the one that encouraged Pete Wilde to give me a chance with the shop. The elders set me up in a decent two room pre-furnished house and stocked it with food, which I promptly ate.

They convened a special Council meeting and I found out Dad knew all this crap was real; vampires, werewolves, the whole lot of them. It was cloaked under different names of course. Protectors and Cold Ones; whatever.

Once the tools were clean and hung I left out the back door and headed over to The Clearwater's shop. It was two streets over and things were already coming to a dead stop. That's the way it is on small towns. The smaller they are the earlier the shops close. There's just no need to keep them open.

He was waiting for me and so was the Forks police. I scowled when I saw Charlie Swan's patrol car.

Nineteen years ago, give or take a few months, he participated in a Quileute spirit quest on the insistence from my dad. My mom was there, since she was the local Medicine Woman. Long story short? They both got stoned on peyote and had sex. Ten months later, poof, a bouncing baby girl came along named Bella. They knew I wasn't Dad's since he had to go out of town on some stupid retreat for three weeks.

The whole suck part about this thing is that Dad wasn't upset, Mom wasn't upset, and Charlie has been upset ever since. It made me wonder what the parents had been smoking at the time. When I found out about it Mom treated the whole thing like it was a message from the Spirits, or Coyote playing a trick. Dad was just as forgiving and nonchalant saying these things happened. That was kind of true. Embry Call was born the same way, and to this day doesn't know who his real dad is, but my money is on Harry, the pervert.

Me? I was the half white girl that was the result of making ties with the local law for some unknown reason. At least it was unknown until nine months ago when I turned into a big dog on a daily basis.

"Harry!" I yelled when I unlocked the front door of the tattoo parlor with a key he gave me not too long ago, basically when he started inking my skin.

He originally told me it was tradition to mark the Protectors of the tribe with a symbol chosen by the Alpha of the Pack. With me being the only wolf on the Rez guess who got to choose the symbol? It just snowballed from there.

Whenever Harry does his work, he floods the place with cedar incense, and chants in Quileute. I find the whole process rather soothing even when I'm getting jabbed with a needle. One of the drawbacks of becoming a Protector is that I'm constantly on edge. There is an ingrained paranoia in our DNA to be continuously on the lookout for danger and to head it off before it threatens the tribe. These times with Harry are the Quileute version of therapy so I don't lose my cool. Needless to say I've got a lot of ink.

Just below my navel is the paw print of my wolf. It's smaller of course, but it's uniquely mine. My arms were next, histories of the battles I've fought protecting my tribe from vampires. My entire left arm is covered in a full sleeve; five vampires in all. They aren't on there, but representations of them are there; demons mostly. I refused to be marked with their pale faces. Fire, flame, red-faced fanged things writhing from the trees, the ocean, the sand… everyone tells a different story from a portion of my life.

It's been quiet for the last few months since the Cullens have taken up some of the slack of diverting their brethren away from Forks and La Push. That meant I could slow the sessions down, but not entirely. Since that was the case I chose my own art, something that would take a while to complete, months really since I only came once a week.

"We're in back," he answered.

Cedar was already drifting in the front of the shop and I took a full measure of it into my lungs and blew a relaxing breath out before disappearing behind the privacy curtains to Harry's workspace. Charlie was there in full Forks Chief of Police uniform looking decidedly uncomfortable.

He was really uncomfortable when I showed up out of nowhere demanding child support at fourteen years old. Hey, I'm not that proud. Dad has a hard enough time raising four kids on his own since Mom died. He was too proud to take Charlie's money. I wasn't. I'll give the man credit though. He's been putting it away in a saving's account with my name on it since I was born. It kind of made me hate him a little less at the time.

"Charlie," I said as I entered.

He gave me a nervous nod. "Bella."

Flipping the newspaper around I made sure he saw the headline. "This why you're here?"

I tossed it on a semi-cleared table and dropped my backpack to the floor. Harry was already sitting beside the tattoo chair ready for me, so I slid my hands under my tank and pulled it off without a second thought.

Charlie slammed his eyes closed and turned away while his best friend chuckled. "Jesus, Bella."

"Sit down, girl. You'll scare the pale-faces away showing those canons off."

When I straddled the chair and leaned forward to set my face on the provided padding I took in another breath of the cedar incense.

"You're safe, Charlie," Harry said as he proceeded to cleanse my back before working.

"I just wanted to make sure you knew about what's going on," Charlie said. "They're obviously coming up interstate five. State Police up and down the line are making random stops."

"They're not going to find anything," I mumbled.

"I know that's why I'm here. They're asking for help from all the locals. I was wondering if you wanted to come down to Longview and… um, sniff around. That's the next city in their path."

I chuckled and then heard the telltale buzzing of Harry's tattoo gun. "I'm not a police dog, Charlie. Besides there are going to be hundreds of trigger happy cops in the area. No thanks. If it comes this way then I'll deal with it."

The familiar burning/cat scratchy feeling had begun on my spine in the middle of my back. It was Harry's way of punishing me for making Charlie uncomfortable. Getting inked on the spine hurts like hell, but it was my choice to get it done.

"The FBI is already involved with this ever since he moved out of California. Do you really want them in your business and asking questions if that thing comes up here and suddenly disappears?"

Regular police couldn't touch us on our own land, but the Feds could. He knew that. There was a time I would have snarled at him for bringing the subject up, but I knew this was just him doing his part in protecting me. It was annoying as hell.

I sighed in resignation. "I need to call Pete and see if he can cover the shop for me. Can you get your feds to back off from the areas I'm searching?"

"Maybe. You need to have a good enough story though."

Harry chuckled. "Pale-faces have been using the red man to hunt down their prey for centuries, Charlie. Tell them she's an expert tracker or some stupid thing. White people eat that stuff up."

"I'll Indian up for them so they'll think I'm serious. Harry, you still have that war paint?"

Charlie scoffed. "What do you need me to do?"

Taking a few moments to think I settled on a plan. "I need a fairly detailed map of the area going out a hundred miles on either side of the interstate, and the crime scene of the latest victim. That's it… well, I'll need the area cleared too. Too many people around screws up the scent trail, not to mention spooks the prey."

"I can do the first two, and I'll see what I can do about the third."

~O~

I had enough time to shower and change clothes into something a little more rugged. I doubted I'd have a chance to phase considering the amount of law enforcement in the area. That meant I'd be on foot and moving fast. That also meant I'd be wearing camo pants, military grade jungle boots and a tank top. They were the only really made to withstand the punishment I'd give in hardcore hiking. Regular boots and jeans tend to shred themselves on the underbrush and terrain in a couple of hours. I didn't want to have to explain that to the Feds, I'd have enough trouble explaining how I moved so fast while they're lumbering behind me at a snail's pace.

The rest of the time that evening was spent with me sleeping and Charlie driving to Portland where we were meeting a junior Fed that was supposed to show me the crime scene. For the duration of the trip I was an honest to goodness Forks special detective with a badge and everything. I waved the use of a pistol since they were next to useless against vampires without very special military grade ammunition that you just can't pick up at the local Wal-Mart. Depleted uranium shells held promise, but it's difficult to get a vampire to hold still long enough to test the suckers out. Then there is the whole having to explain carrying around one of those gigantic helicopter mounted Gatling guns to handle the size of the 125 millimeter shells. I much prefer my claws anyway.

I'm kind of hoping for a M82A1 SASR from Charlie for my birthday this year – he's got a friend of a friend. It's an anti-material sniper rifle that's used to take down things like armored vehicles. I'm sure the Cullens wouldn't mind me testing it on them, well, maybe Emmett wouldn't. He's freaking crazy like that.

The next morning and four sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits later we were driving up on a campground that was still roped off and being tracked all over by various uniformed individuals. I sighed. It's really not that bad. Vampire scent is over and above some of the worst things a werewolf can smell. I can compare it to walking into a Burger King and being assaulted by the smell of burgers, fries, and burning grease. It's strong and very noticeable, but add a fresh pile of road kill that has been baking on the asphalt all day and then dipped into corn syrup and suddenly the smell of fries and burgers is muted.

We were stopped and our names were taken before we found a place to park. The junior Fed was even nice enough to meet us at the car. He was maybe in his mid-twenties and dressed in a standard off-the-rack dark blue suit, tie, and shiny shoes that looked really out of place for the situation.

"Special Agent Dean Levoi," he said while shaking Charlie's hand.

I stuffed my hands in the olive colored denim jacket and checked him out. He was a little taller than me, cute, if you were into the whole clean cut city looking kind of guy, with close cropped sandy hair. I wasn't.

"Charlie Swan and this is Detective Bella Black." He motioned toward me. "She helps me out with missing hikers and cases that take me into the deep woods."

The guy smiled at me, measuring me up. "You're Quileute?"

Giving him a nod in return, I commented. "You're observant. Not a lot of people can narrow down a specific tribe like that."

"My mother was full blooded Nez Perce."

"Ah." I looked around, not really interested in hearing a white guy expound on his non-existent Indian heritage.

They're mostly poseurs. Unless you've actually grown up in or around an actual tribe of American Indians then you really need to keep your family tree to yourself. We don't really care if you're 1/32 Apache, especially if you're flaunting your white heritage over your red, and this guy was so white it made my teeth ache.

The scent of day old road kill was still fresh in the air as I looked up at the sky. Rain was coming within a couple of hours and with it the trail was going to go sour if I didn't move.

"It's going to rain soon, Charlie."

He nodded. "Dean, can she do her thing or are you still processing?"

Special Agent Dean gave me the nod. "Go right ahead, Detective."

I moved to the south and once I was into the trees deep enough I sped around until I found the trail, then I ran parallel until I made the camp again on the other side of the scene. There was one thing I didn't like though.

"Charlie!"

Special Agent Dean spun around and looked oddly at me. "How'd she make it around there so quickly?"

"The woods are her element, Dean."

They circled the scene and met me on the other side.

"They came from that direction."

"They?" Dean asked incredulously. "How did you know there is more than one? We haven't released that information."

I smirked at him. "Actually, it's three. They stopped here for a snack and moved north northwest. I need to track them."

"Three? We only have evidence of two."

With a nod I pointed at a tree about seven feet away. "That's because the third one was leaning up against that tree watching his buddies."

Making it all look like ancient Indian tracking skills was the easy part. When Dean went over to check out the veracity of my claims I lowered my voice to Charlie.

"One, no problem. Three might pose a big problem."

"What do you want to do?"

I glanced over to the Fed and then looked back. "Against my better judgment I think you need to call the Cullens and get them involved. This is their kind exposing themselves. They have laws, or so I'm told. Killing this many people in so high a profile breaks them."

"Fair enough. Where do you want them?"

Digging into my pocket I pulled out the terrain map and pointed along dense forest area. "They're moving in this direction. I'm wolfing out and following to see if I can narrow it down. Tell them to come down this way and I'll call ahead to Jasper. He'll be the most useful in this situation, and whoever he wants to bring with him. They need to move now because I don't know if they'll go east or west when they hit Olympia."

He nodded discreetly. "Be careful, Bella."

"Just keep the cops east of five and I'll be fine. I really don't feel like getting shot today."

Running back to the car I grabbed my pack and headed out into the woods.

"Where's she going?" Dean said. "How did she know to look there? There's barely a footprint."

Charlie smiled at him. "This is what she does, Dean. Just be glad she's on our side."

Once I was far enough away I started stripping and stuffing my clothes into the pack, but I kept a close ear out for Special Agent Dean.

"She said it looked as if they were heading east northeast along the interstate. I'd concentrate your dogs and men there."

"Where is she headed?" Dean asked as I attached the bungee cord around my waist.

"Detective Black is tracking them from this end and will notify us if the trail changes."

Dean sounded doubtful. "The trail is at least a day old."

I heard Charlie chuckle as I phased and started to take off running. "Bella is the best at what she does."

~O~

In the forest nothing can beat the dexterity, speed, and senses of a werewolf in full sprint. Even then I was still a day behind them. I could only hope that they'd take a break and maybe play some vampire Parcheesi or something. Just outside of Centrailia I had to come to a stop and called in another dead body to Charlie.

"He's a hiker. This one is torn to shreds, Charlie. It's really messy."

His voice dropped down to a low whisper, but I could hear it well enough. "Do we cover this one up?"

I glanced around the area and frowned. "It's only an hour old tops. They're in the area. Tell, Special Agent Dean where I am and I've borrowed a motorcycle or something to get this far so quickly. We need to corral these things or they're going to be Olympia when the storm hits. After that I'm going to lose them."

"Understood. Wait for the Cullens, Bella."

"I gotta go, Charlie."

"Bella!"

I thumbed off the call and brought up Jasper's number directly after. I didn't trust them too far off their own properly. Even weekly visits to make sure they are staying on an animal blood diet gave me little piece of mind, I didn't like dealing directly with them for long periods of time. Frankly they just gave me the creeps.

"Miss Black."

"Jasper, I'm about three miles west of Centrailia. They were here killing someone else no more than an hour ago, and they're headed northwest."

"Schafer State Park," he said. "That's where Alice said we'll find them. She said we'd encounter them first. Follow the noise when you get there."

I glanced at the map and nodded. "I'm about fifteen minutes out, so it'll be soon. See you at the party."

One last call to Charlie warning him away from the park and I was phased and running at top speed again. I hoped there was a big lunch at the end of the road, because those biscuits were long gone with this much activity.

~O~

A high pitched screech let me know I was less than a mile away when I let loose with a howl as I leaped across the highway hoping that I was a blur to anyone that was looking. The strong scent and the sound of battle directed me a little ease when I heard the telltale sound of a speeding vampire headed my way. I didn't even break stride when I saw a flash of red hair, and a pale face painted with fear. Two more bounds and I leaped into the air catching the redhead's leg in my mouth and clamping down before Emmett had a chance to steal my prey.

She screamed and I ripped it off at the knee.

"Damn!" Emmett yelled. "Two more seconds and I would have had her!"

I dropped the leg and tore my claws into her back before the redhead had a chance to turn over. Her head came off a second later and rolled to the side.

Emmett back away when I growled at him.

"Good doggie. We're here to help, remember?"

Glancing to the right I looked back at him.

"We already got the other two. I'll just take these pieces and burn them alright?"

I was too pissed. That's the problem with hunting prey. All my senses were on high alert and my wolf still smelled vampire in the air, ally or no. At my second growl Emmett raised his hands and backed away.

"Fine, burn her yourself. We'll be back here when you're done."

He blurred away and I turned back to the head that was still not dead, looking at me with glazed eyes and a gaping mouth, screaming in silence for the death I brought with me.

~O~

The sound and smell of Jasper popped up on my right as I sat there crouched, watching the last of the redhead burn in an oily purple fire.

"Miss Black. Are we good?"

I nodded without looking. "Thanks for your assistance."

"Not at all. We'll notify our authorities the problem has been dealt with. There shouldn't be any reprisals this time, ma'am."

A grunt left my throat before I stood and pulled out my clothes from my pack. Emmett was in the background leering away at me while Jasper turned to the side averting his gaze.

"The FBI was involved," I commented. "A lot of eyes are going to be on this area. I can steer them a little east of here, but not by much. They left a trail anyone could follow. It'll lead right here."

A crack of thunder interrupted our discussion and the rain began to fall, easy at first.

"Understood. Have a pleasant morning, Miss Black."

I nodded. "You too, Jasper."

Once I was dressed I started making my way back to twelve while I called Charlie.

"Are you okay?" was the first thing he asked. Like I said Charlie is an okay guy beyond boning a married woman so many years ago.

"I'm fine. It's over. Jasper and Emmett are cleaning up the mess. Tell them I lost the trail in Capitol State Forest. It's raining. That should keep them busy enough for the evidence to wash away."

"Where do you want me to pick you up?"

"There's a Subway off of Main Street and 107. Meet me there; I'm starving."

An hour later Charlie pulled up in front of the Subway. I'd already finished off my third meatball sub foot long and the two ladies behind the counter were giving me weird looks as I unwrapped the fourth. When Special Agent Dean pulled up alongside him I frowned and slurped at the last of my Coke.

Wadding up my extra wrappers I tossed them in the trash and filled my drink back up before returning to the booth. Charlie and I were already on the same frequency when he entered the restaurant and nonchalantly ordered himself a roast beef like he'd been doing this every day for all of his life. Special Agent Dean was a tad edgier as he kept looking at me, still wet from the rain I ran through to get there.

"So, you lost them?" Dean sat down across from me and gave me the doubtful eye.

"It's raining. Trail goes cold in the rain. Don't Nez Perce do any tracking? That's pretty much elementary school stuff on the Quileute Rez, but you weren't raised on the Rez, were you Special Agent Dean? You're a city boy. I'm guessing Spokane… no, you're too eager. Seattle, definitely."

"Bella," Charlie chided me.

Dean took it in stride. "You don't like the FBI, Detective? And I know that's bullshit by the way. I checked the Quileute police department. The only listing they have for a Bella Black is a mechanic. Judging by the grease under your fingernails I'd say that was you."

I held my hand up. "I think that's dirt, but you're welcome to do a scraping and have it analyzed."

"Alright," Charlie interfered. "Both of you back down. Bella is my detective. Why don't you run a check in Forks, Levoi? I'm sure you'll find everything in order."

Looking over at me he pointed his sub at my chest. "And you be nice to the FBI agent. He's giving us a lot of slack here."

I shrugged and bit into my sub as I held it with my greasy fingernails.

"Where's your motorcycle by the way?" Dean asked all innocent like.

"Owner picked it up already… and I didn't even get his name to thank him. Nice guy. Average height, average weight, he was wearing a hat and a hoodie so I couldn't give you a good description."

That made him smile. "You're funny, Detective Black."

We ate in relative silence for the next ten minutes before Charlie finished up and gave Dean a nod. "You be sure and give us a call if there's anything else we can help with."

They shook hands and Dean even held his hand out to me. His smile faltered for just a moment as I'm sure he felt the heat pouring off me.

"That's quite a warm grip you have there, Detective Black." He paused for a moment. "We're going to mysteriously not hear anything more from the killers, aren't we?"

I tiled my head at him. "I wouldn't know anything about that, Special Agent. I'm just a tracker."

He squeezed my hand again. "Somehow I seriously doubt that. I'll see you around."

There was a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me he was very right about that.


	2. Thunderbird

_A/N:_ Disclaimer: In first chapter. Your comments, reviews, and or questions are always welcome. Bella/Leah, with very little fap material. I'm trying to keep this one PG-13.

**Chapter 2**

_September 13, 2005, Tuesday_

"I should be out there," Sam grumbled as he kicked at the ground angrily.

I felt like a den mother for some stupid reason. "As long as I'm Alpha we're not patrolling twenty-four hour days, so chill the hell out."

Paul snorted from the porch with his feet kicked up on my railing as he leaned back in one of my lawn chairs.

"If you break that I will kick your ass, Lehote." All four legs tapped against the floor a moment later. "Look, I appreciate you guys wanting to run around all day as a wolf, but you actually have lives past that. Paul, you have school and I swear you are graduating. Being a wolf is no excuse to drop out so you can get that shit right out of your head."

Sam spun around on us. "There's only three of us, Bella."

When I smirked it just about set him off on another anger tangent. "And I have single-handedly kept this tribe safe for a little over a year, finished my schooling, opened a shop and work ten hour days. By myself!"

I whipped off my shirt and showed my arms. "You see these? Six vampires, Sam. Until you have six of your own don't come whining to me about how I'm not doing enough."

He growled at me and I stared him down. He was six and a half feet tall if he was an inch and against my five-ten that was a considerable height variance. When he closed the distance between us and bumped me with his bare chest, I held my place and looked up at him.

"Uh-oh," Paul whispered. "This is going to hurt. I can't look."

My knee came up between Sam's legs at shifter speed, slamming hard into his most sensitive spot. When he leaned over with a silent scream on his lips I grabbed his hair and slammed his nose into my knee. In a second I had him pinned to the ground with my hand on his throat applying more than enough pressure to make myself understood.

"This is the third time in as many months that you've challenged me, Sam. This is the last time. The next time you pull this shit I'm taking your ear with me as a souvenir. Do we have an understanding?"

He grunted something out and I eased up on his throat. "Yes."

When I released him he rolled over on the ground and curled up into a ball. "You cheated," he moaned.

I just snorted and went to sit on the porch. "I play the game to win, Sam. There are no rules when you're a split second from getting your throat ripped out by a vampire. If you think they're not going to rip your balls off if they have the chance then please, go throw yourself off a cliff or something and save me the trouble. Now get your ass over to Harry's and get inked-up. I don't give a crap what you put on your back, but you need to chill the hell out before you hurt someone. Oh, I changed my mind. No more of those Japanese letters crap. You think all the Japanese people are over there putting English words on their bodies?"

When I looked over at Paul he was wisely covering his mouth and hiding a low chuckling sound. When he saw me looking at him he tugged his jeans down low enough for me to see his paw print below his navel along with his gross happy trail along with it.

"Got mine, Boss."

Looking up at the sky I shook my head. "Spirits save me from these hormonal boys."

A week after I killed the redheaded vampire, Sam phased for the first time. He disappeared for two weeks and then came limping back when I was on patrol one night and heard him begging the Spirits for help. I wasn't exactly the Spirits, but according to the Elders I was close enough. They immediately wanted to make him Alpha, and Sam was at the council meeting biting at the bit to prove himself to them and put me in my place. I took one look at Old Quil who was the one to bring the subject up. Then I turned around and clocked Sam across the face with my fist, and asked them who should be Alpha, me or the unconscious guy.

Harry laughed his ass off and even Dad hid a smirk. Sam called me for cheating and not facing him like a man in the field of battle. Apparently, he's an idiot.

Paul tried the same shit when he phased and I brought him before the Council. They told him he had to follow my orders. He told them he wasn't taking orders from a girl. Old Quil just covered his eyes while I made my point. Paul teases me now, but that's about it. One ass-kicking from a girl was more than enough.

~O~

"_Don't forget to keep your eyes on the trees while you're patrolling_," I thought at Paul as I was escorting him on my nightly run around the Rez. "_If they hear you coming they like to hide up there. Don't let that stop you though. You phase back to human, climb that tree, and chase their ass. I don't care if you're naked or not."_

He snickered and I snapped at him as he tried to pass me on my right. Paul dodged quickly enough.

"_Yes, Boss_!"

When we exited the tree line behind my shop I phased back and let him in the door where he immediately phased into his human form making sure to keep his equipment well hidden. Since he was fifteen I let it slide for now. Last week he'd gone from a kid in the prime of his adolescence to full adult in less than a couple of weeks, physically anyway. In his head he was still a gangly fifteen year old boy that was just getting used to sprouting hair from unusual places.

When I shimmied into a pair of shorts and a tank he was already dressed. He didn't have to deal with the hips I had. Mom used to call them childbearing hips. That's where I got them from. I called them a pain to find decent jeans that didn't make me look fat. I guess it's better than being all bony and straight as a board. At least nobody mistook me for a guy – ever.

"See you later, Bella."

"Later, Paul."

When I made it back to the house I smelled a familiar scent in the air. Charlie had come and gone. The note on the door let me know that he wished me a happy nineteenth birthday. Cake was in the fridge and a present was on the counter. It's really getting difficult to hold a seriously old grudge when the man does stuff like this.

The box definitely wasn't big enough for a sniper rifle; ah well, there was always Christmas.

After popping the top off I pulled the paper stuffing out and found a ceramic wolf in the middle, except it wasn't just any wolf. It was me. The body was a russet coloring except where it met the scruff of the neck where everything turned a much darker color. It was a pretty good likeness. I turned it over to see where he got something like this and found the initials CS 2005 to BB on the bottom.

"Oh, Charlie. What am I supposed to do with you?"

The cake was made at the Forks Bakery. At least the man knew his limits, and it was chocolate; that alone scores major points.

"Happy birthday to me," I sang somewhat melancholy.

Cutting off a gigantic slice I put it on a plate and stuck the rest in the fridge for later. Taking a look at the front door I thought about Sam and Paul, and then made sure to move several things in front of the box to block it from being seen.

"Mine!" Nobody touches my chocolate cake without losing a limb.

Five minutes later my slice was finished and I had to hold myself back from eating all the rest, so I satisfied the craving by pressing each and every little crumb and speck on the plate with my fork and then wiping it clean with my tongue.

"Yum."

"Bella!" someone yelled from outside.

I sighed. "I knew it was too good to be true. What's the point in having a pack if I can't have a night off?"

Setting the saucer on the kitchen counter I peeked out the window and saw Embry Call running up to the front door and ringing the bell. When I opened the door I was somewhat shocked to see we'd have another wolf in a week or two.

"Bella, Harry Clearwater wanted me to tell you that you need to… do your thing. He said that specifically… to do your thing."

We've really got to come up with a new passphrase. Frankly I was fond of 'who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men,' but Old Quil vetoed it, the old fart.

"Got it, Embry, thanks."

I started to close the door, but he stuck his foot in the way. "What's your thing? Does this have something to do with Sam and Paul and those freaky tattoos of yours?"

After giving him the eye I looked him up and down. He was going to find out sooner rather than later anyway. "Yes. Keep it to yourself."

His face lit up as if he'd just been let in on the greatest secret in the world. In fact, he had. "Really? What is it?"

"Sorry, Embry. I have to go _do my thing_. We'll talk about it soon, if you can prove you can keep a secret. That means no Little Quil and no Jake, at least not yet."

"I can keep a secret. Oh, and I think this has something to do with Jake. He was really pissed off at Paul just a little while ago and then I heard a loud…"

I didn't let him finish because I slammed the door in his face and ran for the back, stripping my clothes off as I went.

"Hey! What the hell? Bella?"

The back door slammed closed, and I phased a second after as I sprang into the woods behind my house.

"_Jake? Can you hear me_?"

"_Bella_!"

"_Jake you gotta calm down. Where are you at_?"

"_Are you talking to me in my head? I'm going insane! I knew I shouldn't have eaten those live goldfish. Paul said he'd done it and was calling me chicken_."

I saw he was in the back yard of Dad's house, so I altered my course and put it into high gear.

"_Jake, you're being stupid. You're not insane and I'm pretty sure you can't go insane from eating live goldfish, although I'm also pretty sure that you just drowned live goldfish in your stomach acid. That's a messed up way to go. Spirits are going to be pissed."_

"_Dad's freaking out… hold on… no he's not? I'm a big insane, live goldfish eating, dog and he's not freaking out. What the hell_?"

"_You're not a dog, you're a wolf, and Dad already knows about it, because I'm a wolf too, and so are Sam and Paul_."

"_You mean that's the reason you go missing all the time and the reason Sam's being an asshole_?"

"_Sort of. Sam's always been an asshole. You didn't know him in school like I did_."

"_I heard that_," Sam broke into the conversation.

"_Well look who decided to phase. Did you get your ink_?"

"_Yes_," he grumbled.

"_Hey_," Jake thought at us. "C_an you guys focus on me for a second. I'm a big dog and Dad is having trouble wheeling his chair down the ramp. I think he's been drinking_."

"_Again_?" I snapped. "_You need to find his bottles and toss them, Jake. He can't drink more than a couple of beers with his diabetes_."

I burst through the tree line and saw Jake's wolf form. His fur was just like mine except it was russet colored all the way through.

"_Bella? Is that you_?"

"_Yeah, hold on a second. Jake, Dad's not drunk. Are you telling me you can't smell the peyote on him? He reeks of it? He's probably hallucinating big time_."

"_Is that what that smell is? He's been holding out on me. Tribal rituals only my sexy russet ass_!"

"Taha Aki!" Dad yelled! "Taha Ta, Taka Akia! Taka Taco Bell! I'm hungry, Bella. Let's go to Taco Bell!"

I phased when I hit the porch and turned Dad's wheelchair around before he fell off the ramp.

There was a wolf-like yelp and I looked behind me to find Jake trying to cover his eyes with his paws. "Just relax and think about your human body, Jake. Concentrate on it."

Before I made it through the door I heard a squelching sound and then Jake yelling, "My eyes! I'm blind! Naked Bella. Nononono. Brain bleach! Get me some brain bleach!"

"Are we going to Taco Bell?"

"No, Dad. I'm sure you've got some leftover Hamburger Helper somewhere."

He pumped his hand in the air. "Yeah! Can you put that in a taco shell?"

"No, Dad. Here, why don't you lay down for a little while and I'll whip something up."

After lifting him onto the bed I moved the wheelchair far enough away where he wouldn't be able to get to it without effort then made my way to my room to find something to wear. Sadly, Jake chose that moment to do the same thing.

"GAH! Would you get some clothes on or something!"

"You're pretty naked yourself, or haven't you noticed."

"Yeah, but this is a man's house now. No women allowed."

I glanced around as I hit my old room where I stored several clothes for this specific reason. "Yeah, I've noticed all the dishes in the sink. You know there's this thing called a dishwasher. You just stick them in there and press a button. Poof! Clean dishes for later."

"We're out of soap. I tried using that blue stuff, but bubbles came out everywhere. It was a mess."

I stuck my head out and looked over at his room. "You didn't actually put Dawn in the dishwasher did you?"

"Well, the label said it cuts grease and makes the dishes squeaky clean."

With a sigh I pulled a tank over my head and slipped into a pair of stretchy shorts. I needed to remember to bring some panties next time I come over.

~O~

"All that shit was true?" Jake sat on the couch with a stupefied look on his face. "I thought the new protein shakes I've been drinking was making me bulk out. Man those things taste nasty and I was chugging them all the time."

I sighed. "Are you cool now?"

He shrugged. "I guess. So I can change into a wolf anytime I want. No full moon needed?"

"Any time you want. Just make sure not to do it in front of people who don't know about us. If you do then I kick your ass."

"Whatever, I'm not the tiny little brother you've been picking on all these years anymore."

After giving him a placating smile I nodded. "You know Sam? Six-six Sam?"

"Uh… is this a trick question?"

"No, I can kick his ass. You sure you want to test me?"

Jake looked like he was thinking it over. "I guess not. At least not yet."

"Spirits! Finally, a guy that stops and thinks. You're my Beta."

"What's that?"

I shrugged. "I'm the Alpha wolf. That means I'm in charge of the Pack: me, you, Sam, and Paul so far. Although I saw Embry tonight and he looks like he's going to phase any time over the next two weeks. Since you didn't go straight into challenging my leadership, or my ability to kick your ass, you get to be my Beta. It's like second in command. I need someone that can use their brain… though there is that Dawn in the dishwasher thing to think about."

He had this strange look on his face. "But you're a girl."

"Fine, you don't want to be Beta? Maybe Embry will be somewhat intelligent and not misogynistic."

"No, that's cool. Beta Wolf Jake, vampire killer."

"Red-eyed vampire killer."

"What?"

~O~

After explaining how he couldn't kill any of the Cullens until after they broke the treaty didn't really sit well with my brother. And did I get a happy birthday, Bella? The answer to that would be a big fat no. I'm cool with not getting any presents, considering how most of the family money goes toward the food and electricity, not to mention Dad's cable bill, but not when your own family forgets the day you came into the world something is terribly wrong.

At least someone remembered.

I returned to my house after making sure Dad got his Hamburger Helper sans taco shells, grabbed my clothes and headed back out. The run to Forks was somewhat pleasant. There wasn't any smell of road kill except for the expected tiny stupid animals that like to play in the road while a four ton vehicle is barreling down upon them. Unless it's bigger than the average dog most people won't even slow down and give the little suckers a chance. Then again what's the point? I was test driving a truck I was working on last week. There was a squirrel in the road and it started freaking out in the manic way that they do. I had more than enough time to stop and wait for the thing to figure out that really hard surfaces meant danger. It ran off to the side finally and I proceeded on, only for the stupid thing to panic again, run right back out onto the street and straight under the tire.

Darwin… what are you gonna do?

When I reached Charlie's house I stopped and put my clothes on before making my way around to the front. There was some kind of game on the television, but I knocked anyway. His head popped up over the little windows at the top of the door and I gave him a quick answering smile.

"Bella," he said and looked behind me. "Is everything okay?"

I nodded and kind of looked inside for a moment. "Um… thanks for the present… and the cake."

The tension in his shoulders fell away and it was one of the few times I had ever seen him smile. "Oh, well, it's your birthday. Happy birthday, by the way."

A grin worked its way to my face. "Thanks."

That was all I had. Then we both had to stand there not knowing what to say to one another until eventually he broke. "Do you want to come in?"

"Okay."

He backed away and threw his hand out a little, welcoming me inside. "I've got some pizza left over if you're hungry."

When am I not hungry? "Thanks, maybe a slice or two?"

"It's just going to go to waste if you don't finish it off. I hate cold pizza."

I saw there was a good two-thirds of the thing left over. "Are you sure?"

He nodded and grabbed a paper plate for me. "Um, you need something to drink… all I have is beer. Hell, it's your birthday. One beer isn't going to hurt."

My eyes popped open as I watched him rush to the kitchen. "Do you want a glass?"

"No, the can is fine."

"Whew."

What is it with men and dishes? He grabbed another for himself and popped them both on the way to the couch before handing me one.

"How's things on the Rez?"

I shrugged and pulled a slice of pizza onto the plate. "You know Paul phased last week, right?"

"Yeah, Harry mentioned it on Saturday."

"Jake phased tonight."

Charlie blinked and shook his head. "That's… a lot of wolves."

"Tell me about it. At least after I get them trained I can take some vacation time, maybe catch up on all the cars at the shop."

We sat there and watched most of the game while I finished off his pizza. It was a pretty uneventful night, but that was cool. I could do with a few quite times. When it was over I cleaned up my mess and Charlie walked me out the back door.

"Well, stay safe, Bella."

I nodded and turned to leave, but stopped myself with an aching regret in my belly before I turned around and scared the crap out of Charlie as I hugged him quickly. He had maybe half a second to hug me back when I bolted toward the forest.

~O~

_September 16, 2005 Friday_

"I heard you dropped by Charlie's the other night."

Crap. I knew things we're too quiet while Harry worked on my back for our weekly tattoo session.

"Uh… yeah."

"He's a good man."

"He's a cop," I countered. "It's supposed to be in the definition somewhere."

The next fifteen minutes went by without much pain as he was working above my shoulder blade and chanting away in Quileute.

"You know, ever since you became a Protector he's been making it a point to stay at home most nights and eating pizza."

I almost pulled back so I could see where Harry was going with this. Sometimes he just goes off onto tangents and it's best to simply nod and agree with him. Other times he gets too damn serious.

"He doesn't eat much," I commented, hoping he'd drop the subject.

"Three slices. He says he's saving the rest for you, just in case you drop by."

This time I did have to pull back. "I never go over there. Tuesday was the first time."

Harry shrugged. "White men. They do strange things sometimes."

I frowned and lay back down.

When the slight stinging returned I started feeling a little better.

"You know," Harry said nonchalantly. "It wouldn't hurt for you to drop by more often. You know, just to…"

He didn't get to finish this time when I reared back. "And what, Harry? He's not my dad."

I just got a _you're being stupid, Bella_ look off of him. I get that look a lot and Harry's a master at giving it. "Some kids on the Rez only have one parent. You got blessed by the Spirits with three. You think that peyote incident with your mother was an accident, random chance? What the hell have I been teaching you all these years?

"The best way to tie a lure," I said trying to lighten the mood.

He snuffed. "Your mother was a good woman, Bella; a hell of a medicine woman. She was the one that helped with all our spirit quests. Not once did she participate. She always watched over us. So, tell me this, why then? Why that time? And why did she become pregnant with you right after?"

I've been asking myself those questions for seven years. "I don't know?"

Harry poked me on the side. "This ain't just art I'm putting on your back, you know. It's the Thunderbird, the servant of the Great Spirit. He's intelligent, powerful, wrathful… sound like anyone you know?"

With a sigh I resigned myself to listening to a lecture for the rest of the night.

As he resumed his work he started chanting the song of the Thunderbird and the Whale. Short story made much shorter: big whale comes and starts killing other whales. Since Quileutes were whalers back in the day this was a bad thing. Thunderbird comes and fights the whale, picks it up and brings it over the land. Another big fight ensues and Thunderbird kills the whale. The end.

Quileutes aren't big with allegories; they just like to tell stories.

"There, you're done."

I pulled back and looked at him oddly. "You mean done done, or done for the night?"

"Done done. Put your shirt on. This calls for a pipe."

Ugh. I hate smoking on the pipe. Harry always has the funkiest of tobacco mixtures. If I want pipe weed then I always go to Old Quil. He has the good stuff, not that I'd tell anybody else. I caught him smoking his special blend and told him I'd rat him out unless he shared. Come to think of it that's probably why he's always trying to get Sam into the Alpha position. It's not like I really blackmail him or anything. I always make sure his pickup is in good running order without charging him a dime. It's a trade-off.

"I've been saving this for a special occasion," Harry said as he came back in with a medicine pouch and a Thunderbird pipe.

It's nothing out of the ordinary, just a long pipe like any other, except this one has an eagle's head for a bowl. He opened the pouch as he sat down with a smile on his face.

"You got a lot of anger in you, Bella. You can't hold onto that stuff. It'll eat you up inside, rot you."

I didn't say anything, only pressing my lips together while he told me how messed up I am.

"Thunderbird is gonna help you. You've been marked and you're taking his tobacco into you. Let him take your anger and make it his own. He's used to it."

Once he applied a lit match to the tobacco I knew where his special Thunderbird blend came from. Apparently, the elders are bogarting the good stuff. At least Old Quil didn't rat me out.

"Once a week, one pipe. No more. Got to save some of that anger for the Cold Ones. You get stupid if you do too much."

He took a puff and sucked the smoke into his lungs before releasing it slowly and passed the pipe to me. I did the same, coughing just a little so he didn't think I was used to it.

We finished off the pipe and he wrapped it up with the pouch and handed it to me. "That's enough for two months. You run out you come to me. It'll help with your anger. Make sure to thank Thunderbird after you smoke it. Now, you want more ink?"

I shook my head. "I'm good till next week, Harry. I have to think of something new anyway and I need a place to put it."

"Lower back is good. Maybe some raven wings?"

With a shrug I stood and gave him a hug before heading toward the door.

"Don't forget about pizza with your other father, Little Thunderbird. It doesn't have to be all the time. Once a week is enough."

~O~

_November 9, 2005, Wednesday_

It's been a while since anything has been on the radar. I'm beginning to think the vampires have finally got the message. Stay away from western Washington if you want to stay undead. I haven't seen hide or hair from a single one, except for the Cullens. That hasn't stopped the wolves from sprouting in La Push. Embry Call, Little Quil, and Jared Cameron have all phased over the last couple of months. The messed up part is that I saw Harry's son Seth looking bigger than he should be for his age and he's only thirteen years old. This is starting to get a little ridiculous. Kids that age shouldn't be nearly six feet tall, Quileute or not.

I warned Harry about it so he could keep an eye on him. It's sad when your own elders don't notice that their own sons are sprouting up that quickly.

Around ten o'clock while I was changing out a starter for '83 Chevy Impala I heard a semi-familiar voice from just outside the garage.

"Hello?"

"Down here," I called out.

I glanced to the side and saw a pair of brand new Nike's and the cuffs of a pressed pair of jeans starched within an inch of their life.

"Bella Black?"

I finished tightening the restraining bolts back into place and attached the electrical before rolling out from underneath the car. "Special Agent Dean!"

He grinned knowingly down at me. "Detective? Or is it Mechanic?"

"A little of both," I said as I got up and moved to the work bench to clean off my ratchet. "What can I do for the FBI on Quileute land where no federal crimes have been reported recently?"

With a smile he looked around the shop while I noted his brand new flannel shirt and the brand new denim jacket that matched his pressed jeans perfectly. His hair was still closely cropped and gelled into place. It made me wonder exactly how anal retentive this guy was.

"Is there somewhere we could speak without being overheard?"

I glanced around the shop and shrugged. "There's nobody around to listen and I've got to get this Impala out by lunchtime."

It was finished, but I didn't have to tell him that.

"Right." He lowered his voice anyway. "I've got a case in Port Angeles; a missing eight year old girl. You heard about the Amber Alert that was put out yesterday?"

When I cocked my head at him I started rubbing down the sockets I used. "Yeah. They said it was right outside her school where she went missing."

He shrugged. "We've kept this from the local news for the parent's sake, but this isn't the first. The MO matches a case out of Boise."

"And that's where the FBI comes in."

"Right." He looked reluctant and showed exactly how much by the way he was avoiding my eyes. "I wouldn't ordinarily bring in local mechanic enforcement, but if we don't find her within the next twelve hours then she will probably wind up dead and not in a peaceful way. I've got no leads at all and the SAiC won't be in town for another fifteen hours."

I stared him down. "Is this on the level?"

Dean's eyes flicked up to finally meet mine. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't."

This sooo wasn't what I thought I'd be doing when I was drafted into being a Protector, but a freaking eight year old girl…

"I do my thing. If I can't answer your questions then you won't press. Afterward I get a meal and a ride home. Can you deal with that?"

His lips pursed and I watched as he swallowed his pride. "Yes."

I tossed him the keys to the Impala. "Back that out while I go change. Just right outside the garage and put the keys in the glove box."

He looked at me oddly. "Nobody will try to steal it?"

With a smile thrown over my shoulder I said, "Nobody steals from the Quileutes. They know what will happen if they do."

"What'll happen," he just had to ask.

There was no answer in reply I just closed the door to the office and pulled out my hunting gear.

~O~

"Do you always wear that when you go on assignment?"

My Forks Detective badge was still in the inside pocket of my jacket. I called Charlie to give him the heads up in case someone decided to investigate much like Special Agent Dean did months back.

"Sure… why not?"

He shrugged. "It's not very professional."

"I'm not very professional."

"I noticed that about you."

The single flasher on the dash was getting us past all the weekday drivers fairly quick. I normally didn't move this fast unless I'm in wolf form. Even then I move twice as fast on a slow day.

"Is there anything I need to know to keep the locals off your back?"

I shook my head. "Just tell them I'm a specialist and to stay out of my way."

"A specialist."

"Yep. I'm reminded of a line I read somewhere. _I'm the best at what I do and sometimes what I do isn't very nice_."

He actually snorted. It was an odd sound coming from somebody so straight-laced. Maybe he recognized the line.

"You carry any weapons?"

"Nope." I am the weapon.

"Fair enough."

Another twenty minutes and we pulled up to an elementary school. It was out of session and there was a single blue and white Ford cargo van out front. A quick smell with the window cracked told me no vampires were involved. That made this that much harder.

"How do you know she was taken from here?" I asked.

Dead reached into the back seat and pulled a large sealed bag to the front. Inside was a Princess Barbie backpack.

"This was found by the curb, just like all the others. We've kept this from the media."

I took it from him and started opening it. His hand stopped me. "That's sealed evidence."

Looking up at him I raised an eyebrow. "Do you want me to find this girl?"

Dean's face went grim and he reached into his pocket and withdrew a small knife. As he cut through the tape he looked at me. "Don't touch anything inside. If we find this guy this is a crucial piece of evidence that connects him to the other abductions and murders."

"Okay… um, look that way for a minute."

"Bella, you can't touch anything."

"I won't, but you can't watch while I do this."

Against his better judgment Dean looked away and I put my nose right down on the back of the back where the girl most likely had it against her whenever she wore it. Taking in a deep breath I caught her scent. Her parents still used baby shampoo for her hair. It was blonde as well. There were several stuck to the pack. I caught hints of Irish Spring and an underlying scent of raspberries. That was her true scent.

"Got it," I said as I handed the bag back to him. He sealed it back up and returned it to the back while someone knocked on the side window.

"Agent Levoi, back again?" A guy in a gray off the rack suit said. He was definitely a cop.

"Detective. I brought in a specialist to assist. She's helped me with a previous case with good results."

The cop eyed me as I got out of the car and traced the girl's scent to the curb. "Is this where you found it?"

Dean was out of the car and moving toward me. "Yes, how did… nevermind."

I nodded. "Fine, stay behind me at least ten feet. Let me do my thing."

Closing my eyes I took a breath and got moving. Two hours later I was still moving, checking the doors of businesses I passed and even moving across the street as odd intervals. I would have been much more effective as a wolf, but seeing as we were on the outskirts of a minor city that wasn't happening.

"This is bullshit," the police detective said. "We're wasting time."

Dean spun on him. "You're more than welcome to find something else to do, Detective."

"What is she even doing? We've been past this building and around it for the last fifteen minutes and all she's doing is…"

The trail had run cold and I wasn't giving up. "Excuse me, could you shut the hell up?"

The detective glared at me while I closed my eyes and tried to filter out the noise of the city. It was annoying as hell. I was used to the forest. I knew each and every sound the natural world made on La Push and surrounding Forks. In the city I felt useless.

"Bella?"

Dean had moved to within five feet and I held up a finger. There was something just on the edge of my hearing, but I couldn't quite make it out. When I looked up I saw one of those old fire escapes that you don't really see any more on the newer buildings. Except we weren't in a new part of town.

"What?" he said.

A dumpster sat about five feet away. I could make the jump to the fire escape easily enough, but with the cops here that would look somewhat odd to make a nine foot vertical leap like that.

"Back away," I said as I took a couple of steps to the side.

"What are you…?"

He didn't even finish before I took a run at the dumpster, pushed off, hit the load arm and spun around to grab at the fire escape.

"Holy shit," the detective said. "Freaking Jackie Chan. Where'd you get this girl?"

I was running up the ladder while it descended to the ground for the others. Once I was on stable footing I ran up the second to the third floor and kept going. The faster I went the stronger the girl's scent came to me.

"She's here!" I stage whispered downward.

"Call for backup," Dean said as he started upward.

"Where? I don't see anything?"

Waiting around wasn't in the stars for me as I kept going to the fourth and eventually the fifth floor. That's where the scent was the strongest. Looking through the window I saw that it emptied out into a long hallway. I tried to pull it up but it was locked from inside.

"Bella, wait!"

Working my fingernails under the sill I broke the simple lock and jerked it open. I was halfway through before Dean nearly yelled.

"Bella!"

Two doors down I concentrated my ears on the two heartbeats I heard inside. One of those hearts was racing accompanied by some seriously clogged nasal passages.

I tapped on the door using the little knocker while Dean was working his way through the window.

"Who there?" A gruff voice said on the other side.

"Tony's Pizza. Delivery."

When I saw a shadow at the eyepiece and heard the voice grow louder," I didn't order…," I reared back at slammed my foot against the deadbolt ripping it from the doorjamb. The door slammed open and onto the guy behind it as he went flying through the room crumpling to the floor.

He was dress in one of those white butcher's aprons and wearing yellow rubber gloves, and that was pretty much it. Ugh. I sped through the doorway and grabbed him by the neck to slam his head against the ground.

"Where is she!" My voice came out in a deep growl, but the guy was too dazed to figure out he was about to die.

"Federal agent!"

Pulling my beast back in, I listened and heard whimpering coming from the next room. Clocking the guy across the face I dropped him and tried my best to put my voice back to normal, but I wasn't too successful.

"She's in there!"

~O~

I only ordered two double cheeseburgers considering I hadn't phased once the entire day. Special Agent Dean Levoi kept glancing out of the corner of his eye at me, but he didn't say a word for the entire trip back to Forks. When we pulled up to the garage he took the car out of gear and killed the engine while I slurped the last dregs of Coke out of my cup.

"How…"

"Shh," I said. "Remember, no questions I can't answer."

"But…"

I sighed and turned to look at him. "Isn't it enough that we saved that girl's life today?"

He blinked and looked away. "Yeah… yeah it is. Thanks for your help, Bella. I owe you one."

With a chuckle I opened the door and took the bag full of McDonald's trash with me. "The FBI owing me a favor. Wow. That's two now. Forget about what you saw and heard today and I'll call it even."

"That's… something that might take some time."

With a nod I closed the door and ducked into the shop hopefully leaving Special Agent Dean behind me for good this time.


	3. Insecurities

_A/N:_ Disclaimer: In first chapter. Your comments, reviews, and or questions are always welcome. I don't want to pander to you for reviews by answering each one with a generic "thank you," but if you have any questions I usually answer each one as best as I can. Those almost always get a personal reply.

**Chapter 3**

_November 13, 2005, Sunday_

In the business of fixing broken car engines it's always best to have a third hand, because you invariably find yourself in a situation where you're holding something up with one, and holding it in place with another – now who's going to put the restraining bolts in?

"Mother Fu… Gah!" I yelled at Ginny Wilde's transmission.

There was a delightful laugh from the front of the garage that I hadn't heard in months.

"It's not funny, Leah."

"It's a little funny."

The clicking of her heels against the smooth concrete floor of my garage had me throwing a look to my right. Damn. Four inch spiked ankle-busters, and those were some seriously nice ankles as well. Leah Clearwater has been my unrequited crush going on five years. I never had a chance with her, because she always went for a specific kind of girl or guy herself, and that kind of girl or guy isn't the type to spend her days crawling around under a car for a living.

"Car trouble?" I asked, because seriously, why else does anyone ever go to a garage voluntarily?

Her high heels and sexy ankles spun in place as she turned in front of the car that I was laying underneath. "Dad asked me to drop it off for an oil change. No hurry. It's not like he ever goes anywhere. Nice tattoo by the way."

She spotted the paw print low on my belly. I was wearing low rise jeans that day. Now if I could only talk her into taking them off me and joining me on the floor. Like that would happen.

"Thanks; got it summer before last."

"Looks like Dad's work. You actually let him mark up your body, Bella? I though you swore that would never happen. What was it you said? Something about poseurs?"

Man, was she going to be surprised when she saw the rest of me. "Uh, change of heart. Since I'm stuck at the Rez and all."

Looking down my body at her feet I saw one of them lift over my hips as she all but straddled me. I bit my lip at the images that came to mind.

"You down there, Bella?"

There were shadows from the top and I could see just a little bit of her copper skin leaning over the engine.

"Uh, yeah. I'm kind of stuck at the moment holding up a transmission. Sorry I'm being rude, but if I move, there goes fifteen hundred bucks."

I finally managed to slip a bolt in. If I could only get a couple more I could roll out and see Leah before she gets bored and leaves.

"I thought you were stuck at college until Christmas," I said trying to keep the conversation going.

Leah being a college put a major crimp in my social life. She was the only person I could stand to be around, mainly because she made my teeth ache. Not because she was so sweet or anything overly girly like that. It was because I had to clamp them down so tight in a vain attempt not to say something stupid whenever she looked at me. She was that gorgeous to me.

"There was some E-coli outbreak or something in all the cafeterias. It put half the college into the hospital. I'm surprised you didn't hear anything about it on the news. Then some geek blew up the science building on a rampage. They decided to close school until next fall. On the plus side they automatically passed everyone that was carrying a 3.25 or higher and reimbursed our tuition, so major score on my part."

"Cool." It really was. That meant she'd be around La Push until the following August. Nine months for me to gather enough courage to ask her out. I could do that. I mean I went for five years without doing it even once. What's another three-quarters of a year? "So no school till next year."

Just one more bolt and I could see her.

"I'll probably be taking spring classes at the PA campus, so I'll be around. Oh, there's my ride back."

Dammit! "Oh… okay. I'll see you around, Leah. Don't be a stranger."

_What? Stupid! Don't be a stranger? Who says that!_

Her heels clicked by as I slammed the third bolt into place and rolled out from under the car as quickly as I could, didn't judge the angle right, slammed my forehead on the chrome bumper in the way up and finally got to my feet in enough time to see a trim, athletically muscular copper colored lower leg pull itself into the car. I could see her hand wave, sorta. The stupid tint of the window was too dark.

Taking a deep breath, I could still smell her scent under the perfume she had on. It cause a shiver to run down my back making me pull up images of her in my head from back in high school.

_Dammit!_

~O~

"Sam's imprinted," Dad said with a straight face.

I looked over my shoulder at him as I was stirring the ground beef and taco seasoning in the pan. About twice a week I try to make it over to see that the men get something else in their bodies other than pasta and seasoning from a box. Granted, tacos aren't that much better, but at least it's some variety. I made sure to include beans, rice, and some queso as well.

"Does that have to do with counterfeiting or something?"

He shook his head. "It's more of a way to continue the bloodline of the protectors."

"I'm still not following."

Dad looked really disappointed with me. "You really need to pay attention to the lessons Harry teaches you, Bella. We're not just blowing smoke up your…"

"Dad!"

"My point is that you've personally found out that our people's legends are true. This means you need to know all of them. Imprinting is one of them. It's a way for the Spirits to let you know the person you're looking at is a potential wife, that's she's good for you, for your family, and so on."

That required an eyebrow raise. "So, it's the Spirit's version of Match dot com?"

I don't think he got the reference. Dad's not much for computers. "What?"

"A dating service online. You take a test and they match you up with people that you're compatible with."

"People do that?" he seemed vaguely horrified.

"Yeah, Dad. Welcome to the new millennium."

He wheeled his chair around to the refrigerator and pulled out the jug of apple juice. I grabbed him a glass and set it on the table.

"Imprinting is more precise than that. Sam and Emily are connected, or they could be if they both want it."

"Connected," I pondered. "Kind of like soul mates?"

Dad sipped at his juice and gave me another weird look. "I told you those Harlequin Romance books were going to rot your brain. No, not soul mates; they're just… nevermind. Have Sam show you when you're phased together."

The thought of looking into Sam's head wasn't a pleasant one. I try to avoid it whenever possible. "Leah's back in town. She dropped Harry's car off for an oil change."

He threw that knowing look at me. It's the one where he knows exactly what's been going on in my head and there wasn't even a reason to try to hide it. Thankfully, Jake chose that moment to walk in.

"Bella! Tacos! Awesome. Did I ever tell you that you're my favorite sister?"

I frowned at him. "That's because the twins moved out."

"True."

I tossed a tortilla at him hoping to hit him on the head, but those suckers aren't meant for high speed flying. He grabbed it out of the air and stuffed it in his mouth.

"Go wash up. Dinner's almost ready."

"Cool! Oh I heard Leah's back in town. So, you gonna actually ask her out before she leaves again or what?" he yelled from the hallway to his room.

Dad looked smugly at me almost daring me to deny my attraction to her this time.

"Why do I come over here?" Pointing my spoon at him I said, "I'm not talking about this with you. I just wanted to let you know she was in town so you can say hi or something. You're still an elder, right?"

He completely ignored me. "I think it's about time you and I sat down and talked about continuing the Black bloodline."

I raised my eyebrows. "Dad, that's kind of difficult to do. I'm a lesbian and that means I'm limited in how that's going to work. Besides, I'm Alpha I haven't had a period since I started phasing, so the whole reproductive thing is sort of in stasis."

The look on his face let me know he wasn't comfortable talking about my menstrual cycle, which was good to know for future conversations.

"Perhaps you could stop phasing. There are more than enough wolves to guard the reservation now."

"Seriously, Dad? Is Sam whining still? I told him if he tried undermining me again…"

"No." His hands were up in a placating gesture to calm me down before the storm started. "You made Jake Beta. He could easily step up and take over."

A low rumble started in my throat as I emptied the pan of taco meat into a bowl and started gathering everything for the table. "I'm not quitting. Jake is only fifteen years old. Hell, most of the wolves are fifteen. Seth will phase any day now and he's thirteen! They may look like adults now, but they still think it's funny when one of them farts."

There was the sound of laughter from the bathroom and I pointed straight at the hall as a perfect example.

"They'd rather roughhouse than train. They're trying to use the wolf as an excuse to get out of school. They're actually hoping the Cullens will break the treaty so they can go kill them. Seriously, Dad? They're not responsible enough yet. They don't think by them breaking the treaty it means that someone, some innocent person has to die. They just want to kill, rend, and tear. No, thanks. I'll stay right where I am until they have a chance to grow up."

The look on his face told me he understood, that and the accompanying sigh. "It's not your responsibility, Bella. That's one of the reasons the elders are here."

After putting everything on the table I turned around and started rinsing the pans. "I'm really happy just being under a car all day. If we had a responsible adult that would be one thing. Once Jake reaches eighteen we can revisit this conversation, but until then…"

"I know you don't like him, but Sam _is_ an adult."

I nodded in confirmation. "Yes he is. He's also a misogynistic asshole, pardon my language. It wouldn't surprise me if when he and Emily do this imprinting thing she winds up pregnant, barefoot, and cooking for the pack all by herself. Want to lay any odds?"

Dad coughed into his fist, and Jake reentered the room. "Man you should have had some of Emily's muffins. They rock. She made some for the whole pack. Why weren't you there, Bella?"

With a smirk for Dad I turned back around. "I have a job, Jake. It's one of the things that helps put food on your table along with Dad's disability check. Maybe you should think about getting one after school."

"Doing Pack things. I have that new patrol schedule laid out like you said. Nobody on for more than two hours, and we're paired up." He patted down his pockets. "I have it here somewhere. Oh, here it is."

After drying my hands I opened the folded paper and looked it over. "Put Jared with Paul on Thursday and swap Embry with Sam. That way you have the experienced wolves with the inexperienced. They learn more that way."

He cringed a little. "Jared has a date on Thursday. They've already bought the concert tickets."

"Fine, then put Embry with Paul and have Jared on with me for Friday and you can be with Sam on…" I could already see there was a scheduling conflict. "Okay. This is how it's going to work. You make the schedule, post it at the garage. Then people can work around you for their personal life. Alright? If anyone has a problem with it then they can talk to me. Pair up experienced with the inexperienced."

"Bella," Dad interrupted. "I thought you wanted them to have a personal life."

It sounded like he was looking to give Jake a lesson and not undermine my authority, at least not yet.

"It's called responsibility. Prioritize. Education first, family second, pack third, personal life last; unless there's a threat that is. This one and only time I will patrol by myself on Friday. It is a once in a lifetime deal since your just learning how to do this. It will not be happening again."

Jake didn't like the sound of that. "Embry and I were just going to be playing video games. I'll come out with you on Friday."

A wry smile made its way to my face and I hip-checked him on the shoulder. "That's what I'm talking about. That's a Beta decision, Jake. You're doing good; keep it up. Now here's something to remember. Let them all know up front that you're sacrificing your personal time and it's not happening again. They need to plan ahead, and Jared owes you one."

"Can I eat my taco now?"

~O~

_November 18, 2005, Friday_

"_Do you think any of them will be red this time_?" Jake thought at me while I was making my bi-monthly stop at the Cullens to check for any red eyes.

"_I doubt it. They seem to be sincere enough. Remember, they're doing this to keep relations between us cordial. No growling. If you can't handle being around them then wait by the road_."

"_Cordial, whatever. They're leeches_!"

"_Alright, enough_." I stopped and made Jake come back to me. "_This is how things work with enemies. They check you out and you check them out. This way there aren't any surprises, no unnecessary death. There's seven of them Jake. We patrol in twos. Don't be stupid enough to think that they couldn't overpower any of us if they wanted. It works the same way for us. We could do the same_."

"_Can we go now_?"

I huffed and snapped at his face. "_It thought you were smarter than this, little brother. They may never be our friends, but they can be our allies at times. Go wait by the road_."

He dropped his haunches to the ground. "_But, I wanted to see the leeches_!"

"_When you can call them _vampires_ and not that stupid name Sam made up, then I'll know you have a level head. Until then go wait by the road. Our peace is uneasy enough without you insulting them_."

He sulked as he disappeared through the brush. I went ahead and phased back to dress since I was about a hundred yards out. Once I made my way to their drive I heard one of the girls call out to their leader.

"She's here, Carlisle."

It was the little black-haired one. None of them ever looked like they were happy for my presence. Carlisle always seemed pleasant enough; overly so if you asked me. However, he always complied when I asked for help or even asked to check them out so I could constantly reassure the elders that they were complying with the treaty.

"Bella," he said with a pleasant smile as he took the steps of the house at human speed. "On time as always."

"Hello, Carlisle. Everything going okay?"

While he was talking, all the family made a brief appearance out front so I could check them out. Then they zipped away again just as quickly.

"Everything is just fine. Any plans for Thanksgiving this year?"

White people, I swear. "I'm an Indian. I'm supposed to celebrate the invasion of our land and the slaughter of my people? No, no plans, Carlisle."

"My apologies. It wasn't my intention to be insensitive."

Golly, he could ass-kiss with the best of them. "No problem. Where's Edward?"

"On vacation in Alaska. You remember we have cousins so-to-speak that live up there."

That sent up a red flag. "On vacation?"

The paired ones occasionally left for a week or so for whatever reason, but Edward always stuck around Carlisle and Esme. He never left – ever.

"He'll be back on Wednesday if you'd like to drop by; you're always more than welcome anytime."

I nodded. "I'll do that. Thank your family for me, please."

"It's our pleasure, Bella. Anything to ease the tension between our two people."

When I was out of sight down the drive I stopped and stripped again before phasing. Jake was sulking and we made a quick silent run around the Rez before calling it a night.

The light on my answering machine was flashing when I got home. When I hit the replay button, Harry's voice came out kind of breathless. "Bella, Seth's phased. I talked him down, but he's still wired. Come by after patrol. Oh, by the way. Leah's a wolf."

Click.

I was standing there, naked in my living room with my mouth hanging open. No, he's kidding me. I would have smelled it on her when she came by the garage. There was absolutely no shifter scent on her whatsoever. This was obviously Harry's idea of a joke; too much of Old Quil's tobacco apparently. When I started to unzip my pack to dress I thought better of it. If she was there then I definitely wanted to be better dressed than the wrinkly stuff I had in my pack which still had a faint scent of vampire attached.

Running into the bathroom I ran a hot washcloth over my face and under my arms, just in case, and then reapplied my scent free deodorant. I chose my newest pair of jeans, basically the ones that weren't frayed all over the place. On the plus side they fit me like a second skin. A fresh black tank that showed off my paw print that she noticed followed soon after.

There was a moment of indecision on whether or not to cover up the rest of my ink, but I shook it off. If she was going to accept me then this was the real me – Harry Clearwater's coloring book. I decided on my hunting boots since I rarely wore those and they looked the newest out of everything I owned.

When I was about to leave I luckily walked past a mirror and saw the rat's nest on top of my head. That would have been perfect. She would have laughed me out of the house. Ten minutes later I'd tamed it as well as I could and even took a moment to curl my lashes. I gave up on makeup months back. Every time I phased it was obliterated, and that stuff was costly. If I was ever lucky enough to go out on a date with her then I'd wear some, but I just can't afford to buy it like the white girls in town. At least my skin was clear.

"Okay, Bella. Don't be a spaz. Hey, Leah; looking good. No that sucked. Hey, Leah; I like those heels… stupid! She knows I know nothing about fashion. Okay, okay. Relax. Yo, Leah… Idiot. Hey, Leah; there's a new Italian restaurant in PA. How about you and me check it out tomorrow night?"

I paused and looked at my reflection. "Hmm, that didn't suck. It wasn't great, but it definitely didn't suck."

~O~

My hands were nearly shaking when I reached for the doorbell. All thoughts of Seth were taking a back seat to me not reliving five years of angst-Bella. I was going to ask her out tonight… or maybe tomorrow… maybe next week. She's probably busy. I mean, she's Leah Clearwater for Spirit's sake. She probably has guys and girls lined up waiting for her to say yes to them.

"Screw it," I growled as I hit the bell. Angst-Bella it is.

Give me an army of vampires and I have no problems. One hot girl has me doubting myself.

"Is that her?" I heard Seth say. "I can smell her from inside!"

That sent me through a panic and I quickly sniffed my underarms. He's just smelling my natural scent. That's all. I used deodorant. I don't stink. _Quit freaking out, Bella! You're the Pack Alpha_!

Harry opened the door and then looked at me funny. "Come on in. He's like an ADHD kid on a sugar high after downing four cans of Red Bull."

"Oh Spirits."

See what happened when a kid phases.

"You don't have any… um…" I sucked in a short quick breath and he raised an eyebrow.

"You're not getting my kid stoned on his first night as a wolf." He moved in and whispered to me, "Besides, Sue already vetoed that idea."

"Bella!" Seth bounced into the room at least half a foot taller than he was the week previous. He had to be pushing six feet tall easily. "Everything makes so much sense! Oh wow! I totally get your tattoos now. Those are Cold One aren't they? Is that how many you've killed. Is that what they really look like? When can we go hunting? I gotta bag me one. Dad, can I get some tattoos like Bella?"

"Absolutely not," Sue yelled from the kitchen. "Bella, talk some sense into this boy, please."

Harry shrugged and took a seat on a barstool next to the can of beer that looked mighty nice right about now.

"How about it, Bella. Can we go hunting right now? Did dad tell you how big I am? Did…"

"Seth! Sit!"

His eyes popped open widely and he dropped to the floor without even thinking. I groaned and palmed my face. "On a chair would be fine."

A wide smile rose on his face and he looked as if he was going to start rambling all over again, but I raised a finger. "Shht!"

Seth looked over at Harry and put on a pouty face. It didn't faze him in the least. "Don't look at me, she's the Alpha. Anything that has to do with the Pack goes through her first."

"But you're an elder," he almost whined.

"Shht!" I sighed after he pouted even more. This kid was going to be trouble. "Once you're trained then you can go out hunting. There are rules, Seth. If you don't know them then you can inadvertently cause a war that we might well lose. So just chill and I'll have Paul take you out tomorrow for a run around the place."

His eyes widened. "Paul Lehote?"

I nodded. "He the pack trainer. He's a good fighter and knows what to look for when we're out on patrol."

"Cool."

With a smile I chuckled. "Yes, it's very cool. As for the tattoos, yes, each of these represents vampires I've destroyed. You can't kill them because they're already dead. If your mom doesn't want you getting inked then we'll work something else out for you."

Seth's shoulders dropped in disappointment. "Aww."

"Honey, you're thirteen. When you're eighteen you can get all the tats you want, but until then your parents are the boss."

Harry twitched a little and I tilted my head at him. "What about the rage thing?"

I shrugged. "We'll work something out. Talk to Sue and let her know it's really helped the rest of us. Maybe she'll bend, especially for school. I remember what it was like in middle school. I was raging all the time even without the wolf in me."

He stuck out his bottom lip in thought. "Good idea, Little Thunderbird."

The scent hit my nose a single second before I heard her. "Hey, Bella."

Sucking in a quick breath I looked over my shoulder. Spirits, she was beautiful, even more so after a year and a half away. "H—hey."

She walked in from the back of the house. I was so mesmerized by her face that I didn't even hear what Seth said before she was on me delivering a welcoming hug.

"Italian…" I muttered.

Leah pulled back and looked at me oddly. "What?"

I just shook my head and then ducked it just as quickly so I could get a hold of myself. _Stupid! Take your idiot foot out of your mouth!_

"It's good to see you again. You look… great!" I managed to say without making a total ass of myself.

"Thanks. You've changed." Her eyes lit up as she scanned all my art work. "You've… grown up."

I hoped that meant _filled out_ _in a sexy way_ and not something bad.

"The last time I saw, you were like five and change now you're… wow. I guess being Alpha has been good to you."

"Hey, what about me?" Seth whined from the couch.

I held up my finger again without looking at him. "Shht!"

"So, uh, you're a wolf too? I can't smell a thing on you. How'd you do that?"

Leah looked at me oddly and then at Harry, who was giving me weird elder eyes. I really hate it when he does that. It usually means he has to go research something and I wind up having to stand on one foot all day to ward off evil spirits or something equally as annoying. Sometimes I think he does it just to mess with me. Having a spiritual mentor can be a real pain sometimes.

"You don't smell the wolf on her?"

I shook my head. "She smells like… I don't know. I've never smelled something so… um…" Realizing what I was about to say, I amended my observation. "I've just never smell it before – could be anything really."

Harry's eyes narrowed before he stood and took my elbow. "Excuse us for a minute. Bella and I need to have a talk."

_Oh crap. He knows!_

We had to walk halfway down the dark street so as not to be heard by Seth or Leah. It was the latter half that worried me more.

"Okay, what's up? You keep changing your story midstream and that means you're hiding something. What's Leah smell like?"

This was going to go over well. _Yeah, Harry, I've had a lesbian crush on your daughter for a bazillion years_.

With a weary sigh I looked away. "Like the best scent ever. I can't even put it into words."

"Oh," he mumbled and looked thoughtful. "Oh!"

I facepalmed myself. "Yeah, oh."

He chuckled. "So that rumor you liked girls wasn't really a rumor."

"No, it wasn't." When I felt his arm on my shoulder I looked to the side at him. "You're not mad?"

"No, Little Thunderbird, I'm not. You never paid attention in my class when you were younger. We're not like the White Man. You like who you like and that's it. The Spirits made you for a specific reason. They don't just shake up the mix and pour Bella batter out into a preformed mold. Sometimes when things like this come along it's pointed out to us old guys even more."

Harry drew away and shifted in front of me. "There was a kid when I was in middle school. What was his name? Keith, Kevin… something with a K. He was born with both genders down there, if you get my meaning. The elders at the time had great hopes for him. Something like that happens and you know the Spirits made special plans. He was supposed to train with your mother, learning the medicines, and the tribal lore beyond what we teach you kids in school."

Thankful for something else to talk about I looked up at him. "What happened to him?"

Harry shrugged. "Hit and run in Seattle. Never found out what the Spirits had in store for him. Life's like that sometimes. Good things and bad. You liking Leah as more than a friend could be much worse. Why don't you let her decide and quit acting all stupid."

He had a way of putting things, Harry did. Like I said before, Quileutes aren't big on looking for meaning in a story; they just like to tell them. If you found meaning in there then good for you. "Yeah, well, think about this. How would Charlie feel if you had the hots for him and never said anything."

I thought he was going to be sick for a moment. "Little Thunderbird, you really have to stop saying things like that. I think too much and now I'm going to be fishing with Charlie tomorrow and thinking about that."

With a pat on his back I felt much better about my life. "I'm glad we had this talk, Harry."

When we returned to the house Sue told me that Leah took Seth out for a run over to the beach so he could work off a little energy. It was a safe enough area so I didn't get annoyed that Leah just undermined my authority. She wasn't exactly Pack yet, so it wasn't like I could order her around. Leah was in college. She was obviously smarter than me. Who was I to… _ugh_!

~O~

When I got back to my house I pulled out the last of the fried chicken I made the day before and heated it up in the microwave. With a glass of water and my chicken on a plate at the table I could sulk for the rest of the night.

_I was right there!_ "Italian… Brilliant, Bella. Maybe you can put on a pair of floppy ears and do a dance next time. It would probably impress her more if you did that."

This is what happens when I miss my weekly time under Harry's needles. I get all discombobulated. I can't think and just react to things instead. It made me wonder what would happen when I'm older and run out of uncovered skin. I wasn't going to cover my whole body or anything. That's a little extreme. My back, my arms… I was actually thinking about one for around my eye, but that was more of a spur of the moment thing. That shit would hurt going on. I would be intimidating though. Hmm.

No. No facial tattoos.

Maybe if I just got some of that cedar incense.

_Screw it. Where's my pipe_?

~O~

_December 3, 2005, Saturday_

Just over two weeks and I haven't made a single move. I'm such a coward. Leah comes over to the garage and we catch up while I have my head stuck under any random hood. Conversation flows much better when she's near and I'm semi-distracted. I don't overthink things and we get along so much better.

"You still haven't let me see your Thunderbird, Bella. What's up with that?"

Lifting up, I banged my head on the hood of the car. "Oow!"

She chuckled. "We could go into the office so nobody else can see."

Me, semi-naked in a closed room, alone with Leah? Yeah, only bad things could happen. "When you tell me about why you phased then you can see anything you want."

Leah had kept tightlipped about how and why she turned into a wolf and I hadn't even seen her animal side as of yet. I kept pushing and she kept holding back. The elders were especially interested and were encouraging me to find out. Harry was the only one that had reservations about making his daughter do something she didn't want to do, and frankly so did I.

There was a sigh behind me and I tried my best to ignore it. "Do you promise to keep this between us?"

Nonchalantly, I turned and switched out a socket with a nod. "Sure."

"No elders, no Pack. You have to keep this hidden, Bella."

I mimed a zipper across my lips and didn't say a word as I saw she was fairly nervous about saying something.

"I met him in my intro-psychology class."

That brought me to a stop. I seriously didn't want to know about any of her sexual exploits. That would only make me more depressed.

"He was all handsome and mysterious. We went out a couple of times. He had these amazing violet eyes. I mean, you never see that sort of thing outside of Hollywood, right?"

I nodded and bent back over the engine.

"One day I'm burning up, and I don't even feel it. Cassie – that's the girl I was rooming with in the dorms – she bumps into me and notices that I shouldn't be standing because I'm so hot."

By this time I already knew some of the ending to this story, so I stopped, set my ratchet down, and turned around.

"I went to class anyway, you know? I mean I didn't feel bad. In fact, I was feeling pretty great. Except when I get there, there's this awful stench that nobody else seems to notice, and it's coming straight from the violet-eyes guy. He takes one look at me, sniffs the air and bolts from the class."

"Vampire," I said softly.

Leah nodded as she averted her eyes. "I ran after him. I mean I really ran after him. I didn't notice I was moving so fast. Thankfully, he was taking a route where not many people could see what was happening. Then, when we hit the woods, something burned inside me. The next thing I know I'm ripping him apart and he's screaming."

She swallowed with difficulty. "I didn't know we were supposed to go for the neck at the time. He was just screaming and thrashing."

"Damn," I whispered.

"They may be dead or undead, whatever, Bella, but they can feel pain."

The rational part of my brain understood that. The four of the six vampires I've killed all screamed in agony before I ripped off their heads. The beast inside me, my wolf, didn't care. Vampires were an abomination and they had to be destroyed.

"It only took a few more seconds before two more of them came," she laughed and then wrapped her arms around her middle and looked at me with pooling eyes. "I got chased through half of Washington before I lost them, and then I came home. The end."

The first thought that went through my head – spirits help me – was that the vampire she tore apart wasn't burned, and odds are that he was still out there with his two buddies. The second thought was that Leah was hurting and I was standing around thinking about how to hunt down some vampires and kill them for good.

I immediately wiped my hands off on a shop towel and moved in to give her a hug. We stood like that for a good three or four minutes while I tried to comfort her.

"I got your shirt wet," she muttered.

"It's a work shirt. Worse things have been on it."

Her body convulsed with a laugh. She wiped at her eyes with the heel of her hand as she pulled back. "So, you've heard my sad tale, now let me see."

Reaching out with my wolf senses I made sure nobody was in the area as I turned around and lifted my tank off. I'd taken to not wearing a bra most times. When I tried they invariably got shredded and a decent bra is expensive. Since I first phased I'm very – firm. In other words I was in no danger from sagging anytime in the near future, so I just went without.

"Oh… wow. Dad does good work."

Her fingertips brushed over the skin, down my spine and then at the shoulder blades. It was everything I could do to not turn around and slam my lips against hers as she touched me so softly.

"It took months; a little bit every Friday. We use it to keep our rage at bay."

"It works?" she asked.

"Mmm, I go by, he lights up the cedar incense, does a little work, chants a story or three, and I leave feeling pretty good."

Her fingers slowly trailed down to my lower back. "What's this down here?"

"Raven's wings when he finally gets finished."

"_Go lower, please_," I tried saying, but it stayed in my head.

"It's beautiful."

When her hand came away I took that as my cue to slip my tank down. My nipples could probably cut diamonds at that point so I did what any sexually repressed shapeshifter Alpha wolf would do and grabbed my ratchet to work off my excess energy on the engine.


	4. Fubar

_A/N:_ Disclaimer: In first chapter. Your comments, reviews, and or questions are always welcome. I don't want to pander to you for reviews by answering each one with a generic "thank you," but if you have any questions I usually answer each one as best as I can. Those almost always get a personal reply.

**Chapter 4**

_December 30, 2005, Friday_

I've been holding off asking Leah to join the pack. After her experience I just didn't have the heart. It means a little extra work for the rest of us, but every time one of the others complains I come close to biting their heads off. I think it's a wolf thing. They can all leave her alone. Being a girl and a wolf isn't the easiest job in the world. Not only do I have to deal with the old world thinking most of the boys are stuck in with the whole barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen ideal they have in their heads; I also have to deal with the times they think they can take me in a fight.

About every three weeks someone gets a bug up their butt and bumps me during patrol or pushes the nudity think too far. They think because I don't have any qualms about changing in front of them that it gives them free rights to cop a feel. Little Quil was the latest offender of that one. Limping back home that night, I'm sure he was rethinking his world view concerning the ins and outs of sexual harassment.

Regardless, if she wanted to join or not I always ran with her. Leah's wolf was just as beautiful as she was. She was just as small as I was, but we were much quicker than the rest. I always found a reason to brush up against her when we were phased. It was an encouraging gesture between us and on the plus side I could still smell her on me when I went to sleep that night.

After getting inked by Harry we went running that night. It was officially a patrol, but I did the work while Leah was able to let her wolf run free. Was it wrong of me to let it go like that? Probably. Especially considering the scent we ran across north of Forks.

I came to a skittering halt and Leah nearly lost her cool. I could feel the fear running through the link we shared.

"_Is that what I think it is_?"

Looking around for any sign of them I said, "_It's fresh; not even an hour old. Phase back and start the call tree. I'll keep watch_."

I sniffed around and found the direction it came from and the way it was going while Leah was busy on her cell. Dates would be promptly cancelled, family holiday gatherings would be put on hold, and video games would be turned off.

Once Leah was back into her wolf I turned to her. "_If you want to bail, now's the time. Charlie's house is about a mile directly south if you want to wait there_."

"_I'm not leaving you alone out here_."

"_I'm hunting vampires, Leah. You know what that means_."

She bumped me as she ran past and took off in the direction of the scent trail. I suppose that was her being pissed off by me for wanting to protect her.

"_Wait for me_," I nearly yelled back. "_Leah, dammit. We run together or you can get the hell out of the forest. This is my Pack and my territory_!"

Her gait slowed and allowed me a couple of seconds.

"_Bella_!" Jake joined in. "_Where are they at_?"

"_Two vampires heading west northwest from Forks. Their trail is less than an hour old. They could be anywhere. Do a spiral pattern starting from the coast. Every team works inland a mile apart until we figure out where they are. No freaking heroes. We take these things as a pack. Leah and I are following their trail from Forks_."

We didn't even get another half mile before Paul yelled out. "_They're near the treaty line. I see them_."

"_Keep your distance, Paul. Don't spook them yet. We can't lose them this close to the Rez_," I ordered.

I could feel the tension in his mind and he was about ready to snap, so I started yelling orders. "_Everyone converge on the treaty line on even hours. Leah and I are taking two o'clock. Call it out!"_

"_Jared and Seth eight o'clock_."

"_Sam and Embry six o'clock_."

"_Quil at ten o'clock_."

"_Brady at twelve_."

"_Jake at twelve. I'm right behind you Brady_."

Leah and I were the furthest away and we poured on the speed to make it in time.

"_There's a third one_," Jake called out. "_Back it up, Brady!"_

"_They've seen us_," Sam said in a rage. "_They're red-eyes! Attack!"_

"_No! Wait_!" It was too late Sam set them off. "_Dammit_!"

None of them had any real experience. Neither had I when I first started, but I was also faster than a lot of them. I tried looking through all of their eyes at once, something I had never done before.

"_Jared duck_!"

He got clocked from behind. Half of them stayed behind and waited for my order before having to wade into the mess and the other half were following Sam, leaving gigantic holes for the vampires to use to their advantage.

"There they are!" Leah yelled when we cleared the tree line and jumped the road. "_SETH_!"

"_No_!" I screamed and leaped sinking my teeth into neck of the male that had Seth bear-hugged and crushing his ribs.

Jake had the one pinned down while Brady was tearing its limbs off. The third had given up and was trying to escape into the trees with Paul scrambling up one in human form.

"_Get back here, you bitch_!"

Sam was below her leaping as high as he could to no avail. The pack converged and ripped apart the two that were down while Paul made it up and was sprinting from tree to tree.

"_Jake, Brady, back them up_."

I phased right there amongst the chaos and moved to Seth. The sides of his body were a mess. Leah was already holding his head and trying to ease the pain. The kid was keeping it all in, only whining a little when his limbs twitch.

"Shit," I muttered. "Quil. Get to my dad's house and get the truck. Hurry! Hang on, Seth."

Digging into my pack I pulled out my cell and hit Carlisle's speed dial button.

"Answer, answer, answer."

"Bella?"

"Carlisle, I have an emergency. Seth was crushed by a vampire. His sides are… not good."

"You're calling Dr. Fang," Embry snapped.

I looked at him and then slung a right cross at his head. He dropped to the ground like a broken puppet. "Anyone else want to bitch?!"

"Bella," Carlisle said calmly. "Bring Seth to the house. I have everything I need here. Be very careful with the positioning of his head. Try to move it as little as possible."

"Got it. We'll be there in five minutes."

Hanging up I stuffed the phone back in the pack. "You all heard that. Real easy, everyone get around him and lift him up. Leah, keep his head still. The truck is on the way."

"We got him!" Sam yelled from the tree line with a proud shit-eating grin on his face as he emerged. His eyes dropped to Seth and then widened. "Oh shit."

I was pissed when I phased and leaped on him. He phased just as quick and I ripped into the fleshy part of his belly, tearing a good gouge before I snapped at his face and tore his ear off.

We both phased back and the wound at his belly was already healing when I started pounding away at him underneath me. His knee came up and slammed into my stomach, lifting me up off of him, but the tight grip I had on his shoulder kept me from flying away.

"You stupid son-of–a-bitch!" I hit him again and heard his jaw bone snap.

Jake was behind me and trying to pull me off. "Bella! Stop! He's had enough."

Jared joined in and grabbed an arm while Jake had my other. Sam took advantage of it and slugged me in the ribs. I felt it give and crack.

"Sam! What the hell?"

They both let go of me and I tore into him again, but he was up and defending himself this time. His arms took the brunt of my assault until I heard his forearm crack and he yelped.

Backing away he looked up at me and submitted. "You win! You win! Just stop."

"Bella, come on," Leah yelled from the bed of the truck.

"Go! I'll be right behind you."

"You're out of the pack, Sam. And if Seth is permanently hurt because of this then you're dead. Quit phasing. If you phase again I'll rip your arms off. Are we clear?"

He blanched and even Jake looked shocked.

"It was an accident," Sam cried.

"That was no damn accident. I told you to wait and you jumped the gun, because you have no damn self-control. Get the hell out of my sight, Sam or I swear to the Great Spirit I will end you here and now."

Sam took a look at everyone and started searching the ground, but what was there was mine. I even stepped on it to make my claim. I received one last go-to-hell look and Sam started running down the road to the Rez.

"You're not actually going to take that are you?" Jake asked as I pulled my foot off the top half of an ear smashed into the dirt.

"No. You can have it if you want."

"No thanks."

Embry was coming around and I looked at Jake. "Burn them and then scout around to make sure there aren't anymore. If there are then call my cell. No screwing around."

Phasing once more I hit the ground and tore up the forest floor to the Cullens.

~O~

By the time I made it there I realized that I was going lame. My right front paw was really hurting and I had to stop and phase back before I realized two of my knuckles were broken and healing back all wrong. It made getting dressed a pain in the butt.

Most of my pack was waiting out front and I flinched when I heard the sound of Seth screaming.

"What the fuh!" I said, but Quil grabbed my arm before I could run inside.

"Dr. F… um… Cullen has to rebreak some of his bones. They're healing wrong."

I blanched. "Spirits."

"He's got him on morphine, but Seth's burning through it too fast."

"Where's Leah?" as if I had to ask.

"She's in there with him."

I nodded and looked at the rest of the pack. "Go home. Meet at the garage at ten tomorrow. Think about what you did right and what you did wrong, because if you don't have some answers for me then some of you are following Sam out of this pack. That was a total disaster. We've trained for this and some of you threw all of that out when one jerk off yelled attack."

A few faces cringed and I could already tell who the guilty parties were. "As of now there is no personal time. You officially have no life outside of school. Talk to your parents and tell them you're an idiot if you are one and that you need the training, because you suck at team fighting. Dammit! Paul and I trained you better than this."

Some eyes were averted when they turned and left. Quil stuck around.

"I was one of the ones that jumped the gun. I'm not going anywhere until I know he's alright."

He had a pair on him; I'll give him that. There was another scream and Quil flinched as if it was him being tortured. His eyes were welling up as he backed onto a tree and dropped into a squat to cover his face. "I'm so sorry."

I just didn't have the time to coddle him. "Good. Keep this moment in your head, Quil. Train better."

Most of the Cullens were waiting on the porch when I approached. "Can I go in?"

Jasper nodded. "I'll show you the way."

The smell was awful, but I bore it to make sure I could be there in case I could do something. He led me upstairs to Carlisle's office. When I entered he was wrapping Seth's entire torso and Leah was holding his hand. Sweat was pouring off him. I felt so helpless.

"I'm told Seth is thirteen years old, Bella." His voice was disapproving.

"We don't get to pick and choose who phases."

"Could you tell me what happened?"

Ignoring his question for the moment I asked, "How is he?"

Carlisle spared me a glance and then resumed his work. "I have him on a constant morphine infusion. The amount that's already in his system would kill a normal human. He's burning it off too fast. Judging from your ability to heal at a remarkably fast rate he should recover enough to move in two days. I would suggest at least a week before he phases again just to make sure. The worst is over."

I nodded reflectively. "Three red-eyed vampires invaded our territory. Sam jumped the gun and attacked before all of us were there."

Leah looked up at that. "Where is he? Where's Sam?"

"I kicked him out of the pack and told him to stop phasing or I'd kill him."

Jasper seemed intrigued by that judging by the look on his face. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, watching me the entire time.

She didn't look pleased, but nodded and smoothed out Seth's hair. "Thank you Dr. Cullen."

He smiled evenly. "You're quiet welcome, Leah."

Carlisle motioned to the door and I took my cue. "Perhaps we can move this outside and give them some privacy."

I nodded. "Sorry about the smell. I'll get some of the guys to come over and we'll move him…"

"Seth needs to stay immobile until morning, Bella. He's fine where he's at. I'm more concerned with your hand."

With a frown I looked at it. Two fingers were obviously out of joint and were throbbing. "I'll fix it later."

"I can fix it now, if you'll allow."

When we made it to the porch I held it out to him as he examined it from the back and the front.

"Did you… hit something?"

"Sam's jaw."

Carlisle shook his head slightly. "This will hurt."

I nodded and waited until he gripped my finger. A loud snap sounded and then the pain hit.

"Oh shit…"

"Again."

That time I whimpered as Edward passed over a finger splint and some gauze for Carlisle to wrap it up.

"Try to keep this on until tomorrow, please."

Once my hand was bound I saw the other Cullens all watching me. Judging me. I didn't need their shit right now. They could sit here in their fancy house and let the world cruise by while the rest of us are actually protecting what little was left to us.

"Can we have our house back?" the blonde said. "And fumigated?"

"Send me the bill, for the medical supplies as well," I countered.

"Rosalie, I asked Bella to bring Seth here. There will be no bills. If the smell bothers you then I suggest opening a window."

He was short and curt with one of his own. I'd never seen him do something like that before. I've known them for over a year, mostly from my dealings with the pack and as a go-between for the elders. Carlisle could be the consummate politician. Nothing ever seemed to bother him.

I sighed. "I appreciate that, but send me a bill for the medical supplies anyway, please. The elders wouldn't want to be in debt any further than they already are."

Carlisle smiled all fatherly at me. "There is no debt between friends."

That brought a smirk out of me. "Allies at times, sure, but I don't think I could push friends through just yet. They have hundreds of years of justifiable prejudice to wade through."

"Then Allies it will have to be for now. I assume you'd like to stay with Leah and Seth tonight?"

The blonde scoffed and went inside.

"If you wouldn't mind. I'll make sure to shut the door and open a window."

Esme smiled. "I'll get you some pillows and blankets."

"Thanks." When I saw Jake arrive I looked over at him. "I better go check in with them and get them out of here."

~O~

Telling Harry Clearwater that his son's life was saved by a vegetarian vampire doctor would have been better told face to face. Afterward, telling him we'd be spending the night in vampire central had him nearly stammering. Letting him know about Sam's screw up and subsequent punishment doled out had me in front of the Council bright and early the next day just as soon as Leah and I dropped Seth off at the tribal clinic.

I had maybe an hour of sleep in total for the entire night. Being grateful to the Carlisle for the use of his office that night was one thing; dealing with the constant stench as I nodded on and off again was entirely different.

"You can't tell him not to phase, Bella," Old Quil insisted. "He was granted his abilities by the spirits. They did it for a reason."

Dad nodded sagely, but it was a hard sell for Harry who was sitting there grimly.

"That makes complete sense now, Quil. I agree with you," I said.

He cocked an eyebrow at me as he waited for the other shoe to drop. We very rarely saw eye to eye on any subject. It wasn't because we liked butting heads or anything. We just saw things from different perspectives.

"It's my opinion that Sam was put here for this specific reason, to show everyone else what could happen if they treat this like a video game and not take it as the serious threat it is. I guarantee that they will be much more attentive and thoughtful about how they approach any red-eyed vampires in the future."

Old Quil opened his mouth, but Harry cut him off. "I agree. We were lucky this time and that was it. That's the only reason my son survived – pure dumb luck. I support Bella's punishment of Sam and treat this lesson from the Spirits very seriously."

Dad looked grim at that. "What about Emily, his imprint?"

I blinked with confusion. What did relationships have to do with anything we were talking about? "How would that be affected? I'm not saying kick him out of the tribe. Sam just needs a leash put on him, before he gets someone killed."

"I'm not arguing that, Bella. The imprinting is between a wolf and his woman."

Oh brother. "Well, I don't know anything about that."

Harry smiled for the first time that morning. "You know more than think, Little Thunderbird."

Have I mentioned how much I dislike Council meetings?

~O~

Jake was letting them have it at the garage. I chose to walk to work instead of phasing so I was able to approach relatively quiet-like. He had an old chalkboard that was probably discarded for the newer dry-erase boards at the school. On it was a fairly decent diagram of the fight the previous night. Taking it in from a bird's eye view it was obvious where all the flaws happened. Spacing was off – apparently nobody knew how to tell time from an analog clock.

"Embry, you're like at four-thirty here. You were supposed to be with Sam at six o'clock. And Jared, you were so at nine o'clock. Does every here own a watch? Can you tell time? We've done this drill fifty times; a little adrenaline comes along and you forget where your dick is much less what a clock face looks like."

_Damn, Jake. Go at it_!

"If we had done it like Bella said then they would have bolted straight out at two or three o'clock and right into Bella and Leah's teeth. We can't let this happen again. We're going to drill it until everyone can close their eyes and find their position. Maybe one of the Cullens can come over and provide a little stink incentive."

Little Quil's face screwed up. "No way, man. My nose still stings from last night."

"Whatever it takes, Jake," Jared said. "We can't let what happened to Seth happen again. Bella's taken out six of those leeches by herself and the entire pack can't take out three? Man, we suck."

"All but two of those were by themselves, Jared," I commented when I opened the door. "Don't make me into some superhero or anything."

There was some shifting around and the tension level just ramped up into the decidedly uncomfortable range when I entered the office. Jake leaned against the wall and Paul was by the window looking confident that he wasn't going to get yelled at. I paused and made sure to make eye contact with all of my wolves.

"We screwed up last night. It will not happen again. Now you know what to expect, what they smell like, what they taste like, and how individually strong they are. Now it comes down to how serious you are. If you can't handle me being Alpha, if you can't handle taking orders from me, and if you can't handle training until you have this down to a fine art, then leave, go home, and quit shifting. That's as simple as it gets."

I made my way around to the front where Jake was standing.

"I won't lose one of you because someone else gets too eager to prove himself and jumps the gun. It all fell apart last night because I gave one order and Sam decided he was the boss and gave another. Some of you, you know who you are, completely ignored me, and ignored our Beta. Neither one of us said a word about attacking. In fact, I told you specifically to wait until we were all there. So this is it; in or out?"

Nobody moved. It wasn't an inspirational showing. Nobody's chest was puffed out. Nobody but Paul looked me in the eye. However, nobody left either.

"Fine. We're all in. I expect each of you to drop by and see Seth. See what happens to one of us when a vampire gets his arms around us. Bring him something to eat too. Clinic food sucks. We'll meet up tonight and start our training."

Everyone started to get up when I turned away. "Oh, Brady, Paul, and Jake stay behind for a minute."

The others threw looks over their shoulders at the three guys I called out before the door closed behind them. Paul still looked confident, Jake and Brady not so much for some reason.

"You three did good last night and took care of business." I lifted up my left arm and tapped on my ink. "If you want to claim your kills go ahead; nothing obvious. This isn't for flaunting; it's to remind you about what we're doing. I don't want competition from the others and them throwing themselves at vampires in order to get a stupid tattoo. So keep it low key and remind them of that if they start acting that way."

Paul had a somewhat sour look on his face. "Sam was the one that got the kill."

I threw a look at him. "Bullshit. You ran up a tree naked and chased that bitch down. Just like Jake held his down while Brady took care of business. All three of you claim these kills. When we act and fight as a pack that's the way it's going to be. If things went the way they were supposed to last night then all of us would be sporting three more vampires. There is no competition and no grandstanding, so there's three a piece for each of you if you want them. This isn't a requirement."

Paul smirked. "Hell yeah, I want mine."

Jake jerked his head and Brady nodded.

"Good enough. I've got work to do, so I'd advise seeing Harry sometime this week."

~O~

Seth was home by nightfall and I was there after I finished at the garage. He was in decent spirits and more embarrassed that he'd been caught by a vampire more than anything else. It was depressing, but not half as much as when Leah pulled me out of the room and to the back yard for a private conversation.

"I want in."

I sighed and gave her one of my determined faces. "You realize what we do."

She pursed her lips at me. "Don't be condescending, Bella. I was there last night and nearly saw my little brother get turned into a squished Twinkie by one of those things. I'll just make sure to go for the neck first, so my delicate sensibilities won't be affected."

"Okay," I replied. "You want to join, that's fine. Remember, I'm Alpha, Jake is my Beta, Paul is the trainer. I won't treat you any different from anyone else."

She looked at me oddly for a moment. "Why would you treat me different?"

Me and my big mouth. "Um… no reason."

"Oookay. So when do we do this?"

"Nine tonight near First Beach."

Leah nodded. "Then we've got a little time. Look, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about."

She moved over, pulled a couple of lawn chairs from the patio, and brought them out to the grass. I took mine and sat before Leah arranged hers a few inches in front of me.

"What's up?"

Leah rolled her shoulders and looked decidedly uncomfortable. "I know we've know each other forever and stuff, but… well… do you want to go out on a date? With me, I mean."

My lips parted and I could swear it felt like someone just clanged a mallet on my head. "Pardon?"

"I knew this was a bad idea," she muttered.

"No, no," I said quickly. "It's a great idea."

"It is?"

"Well, uh… yeah."

"Are you sure? I mean I know you're gay and stuff, but I didn't know your type."

"You're my type." Spirits, I really need to learn how to speak in front of her when it came to personal stuff. "I mean… well, you're my type."

_Smooth, Bella. Real smooth. _

"Really?" I nodded. "That's weird. I mean I knew you kind of looked my way back in high school, but it's been a while."

"Wait," I was shocked. "You knew?"

She shrugged. "Sort of. Sam used to tease me about you watching… nevermind. That's history and Sam's an asshole. Anyway, since I've been back and seeing you—you've changed, and I've changed, obviously."

"No," I said as I reached out to touch her knee in a comforting gesture. "I get it. There's just something… extra."

"Yeah, extra." Leah paused and looked thoughtful. "When you went after Sam last night... ever since then you've got this thing about you. You smell different."

Thoughts of the shower I took this morning came back and I vividly remember putting deodorant on, so it probably wasn't a stinky smell, I hoped.

"You don't smell like a wolf anymore. Does that make sense?"

I nodded. "You still don't smell like a wolf to me, even when you're a wolf."

She nodded. "Yeah, I remember that from when I got back."

Nervous energy was running through me as I tried not to do or say anything stupid before I had a chance to go out on a date with her. Date's meant kissing at the end, and I most assuredly want to know what it was like to kiss her.

"Do you mind…" she started, but stopped suddenly.

"What? I'll do it."

Leah chuckled and stared at my lips.

"I was going to ask…." She sighed and then met my eyes. "I've really been wondering what it would be like to kiss you and I really don't want to wait until…"

She didn't even finish. I didn't give her any chance to do so before I moved in and pressed my lips against hers. Leah was surprised for all of two seconds before she responded and opened herself to me. Sucking in a deep breath I pulled in her scent and let it fill my lungs with the sweetest smell imaginable. I couldn't categorize it, because the smell didn't exist in nature. It was sweet and tart, and spicy all at the same time, and I wanted more.

Leah made a little sound in her throat and I responded in kind. Spirits! It felt like my body was floating on a cloud when her fingers threaded in my hair pulling me deeper and battling my tongue with hers.

Of course Harry had to screw the whole thing up by clearing his throat from the back door.

We disengaged briefly and I didn't bother looking at him, because I only had eyes for the girl in front of me.

"I see you two finally figured it out," he said.

That got our attention.

"What?" Leah asked.

"The imprinting."

She turned back to me. "What the heck is he babbling about?"


	5. Artificial

_A/N:_ Disclaimer: In first chapter. Your comments, reviews, and or questions are always welcome. I don't want to pander to you for reviews by answering each one with a generic "thank you," but if you have any questions I usually answer each one as best as I can. Those almost always get a personal reply.

Additional Disclaimer: I realized, upon reading another very good wolf-centric story called _Venom_ by Betterintexas here on FF and on Tricky Raven that he had an FBI agent butting his nose into Pack business named Levoi. Color me embarrassed. The name was probably in the back of my head as well, but I got it from the movie Thunderheart with Val Kilmer (where he plays an FBI agent investigating a murder on Indian land), and I got the name Dean from, of course, Supernatural. Just so there's nobody pointing fingers and yelling PLAGIARISM!

Why an FBI agent? Because they are the only ones with US jurisdiction on sovereign Indian land. So you can see how this came about. I didn't steal this; it's just a logical train of thought that we both used to fill in a character's background. Kind of freaky though, huh? If it helps any, the author of _Venom_ lives in Texas and I grew up there. Maybe it's something in the water.

**Chapter 5**

_December 31, 2005, Saturday_

The garage was only open for a half day and even then it was the latter half of the morning and the early part of the afternoon. Even my alarm didn't wake me until ten-thirty and that's saying something to someone that's part wolf. By ten o'clock the previous night I was running on fumes. Why close early? It was New Year's Eve and somebody had a date to get ready for. That someone was me, Bella Black, and this was my first date – ever. I may have freaked out just a little in preparation for the evening.

"This is impossible! Everything I own sucks! Jeans… jeans… more jeans… tanks… oh! a cami! Someone put me out of my misery."

Dresses were pretty much unheard of in the Black household after my older sisters moved out. Actually, I was kind of surprised that Jake wasn't wearing my hand-me-downs until he wolfed out; that's how bad my wardrobe looked.

"I need to go shopping." I cringed. "I can't believe I just said that."

Checking the time I panicked even more. It was two-thirty on New Year's Eve, on a Saturday. There wasn't a clothing store in Forks that would be open that didn't carry something other than loud tee shirts that had a fishing or hunting logo on the front. My best bet was Port Angeles and that meant an hour there and an hour back, shorter if I wolfed it.

"I can do this."

After grabbing my larger backpack that I used to use for school I made sure I had my wallet and headed out back for the long distance run.

"_Bella_?" My brother's voice rang in my head.

"_Jake? What are you doing_?"

"_I was bored and…."_ He sounded indecisive, and it was really difficult to lie when we're connected like this.

"_You're patrolling, aren't you_?"

"_Yeah. Don't get mad, okay. I really was bored and I don't have a date to the party tonight, so I'm just running some frustration off_."

Taking a quick look at the road I saw it was clear, so I jumped over to the north side and put the legs into high gear.

"_I'm not mad. Just stay focused out there. You've been doing so good lately, little brother. Next time see if there's someone else that can go with you, okay_?"

He sent a feeling of confirmation so I dropped the subject.

"_Where are you headed_?"

"_PA. I have absolutely nothing to wear tonight except for jeans. I wanted to look good for Leah_."

Jake laughed knowingly. "_Imprinted. Damn! My first two real life lesbians and one of them has to be my sister. Life is so unfair_."

"_You need to spend less time in your bedroom with those magazines and more time in the real world_."

There was an eerie silence after I said that before Jake stammered, "_W—What magazines?"_

"_The ones you so masterfully hid under your mattress. Remember who washed the sheets when I was living there, Jake? Pull up a floorboard next time or something, and get a better quality of fap material. Some of that stuff was just… ugh_."

A feeling of astonishment with touch of nausea followed from him. "_You read my magazines_?"

"_What was that, Jake? You're breaking up_."

"_Whatever! Don't give me that; I can hear you halfway to PA before you start fading_."

"_See you later little brother_."

Sometimes my mind doesn't give me time to think before I say something. I really didn't flip through his porno magazines – honest injun.

~O~

"If you have an idea of what you're looking for I can help you, Miss."

The salesgirl, who wouldn't leave me alone, was really starting to get on my nerves. "Fine. I'm kind of a butch lesbian and I'm going out on a date with the girl of my dreams. If I look sharp enough there's a good chance that there will be a seriously hot evening tonight – if you get my meaning. So, I need something sexy, but not overly feminine, 'cause little black dresses on me – no – but not too overly masculine either, because I definitely don't want to look like a guy. Are these the breasts and hips of a guy? No, I don't think so. So…?"

"Uh…" She blinked. "Right. What are you, a twelve?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Eight."

"With those hips?"

Someone was about to have a close encounter with my claws. That was about the time I smelled Cullens. I spun around and spotted Alice and Jasper at the front of the store looking around. Jasper spotted me first and generally pointed in my direction before the little pixie vampire's face lit up. He found the closest guy chair that they have in front of the stores so they don't get cooties from accidentally touching girl's clothes.

_Oh no_.

Alice made her way quickly through the racks like a seasoned pro. "Bella!"

One glance at the salesgirl and Alice had her running away to a safe place behind the counter.

"Alice," I countered. "What are you doing here?"

"Jazz and I were in town and I had a vision of coming in here and my future disappeared right after, so knew it was wolf related. Shopping?" she asked hopefully.

I've heard stories, rumors really, of a shopaholic pixie girl that terrorizes the stores in local cities. I actually thought it was an urban legend, kind of like the guy with the hook for a hand abducting teenagers that find secluded areas to park and make out. Except this legend has the pixie – or fairy in some tellings – kidnap her victims and makes them try on dozens of clothes in the changing rooms, never letting them leave, because she never gets bored and has endless energy. Obviously, I was about to fall prey to the legend. Perhaps they'd make a movie about this and how the pixie chose the wrong victim and wound up getting the tables turned on her.

"New Year's Eve party tonight?"

"Uh… yeah," I replied warily.

"Looking for a dress?"

"Spirits no. I'd look awful in a dress, and I don't do heels."

Alice turned on her pout and I figured out that vampires sometimes had a secondary gift – or power if you will. "Bella! New Year's Eve party! No dress…."

She pondered that while looking over the racks on tips of her toes, because she's so short. "Oh! Over there. I've got the perfect idea."

~O~

It was six o'clock before I ultimately got home, which was ridiculous. To make matters worse, I smelled like Cullens. They're nice enough, but seriously, there's a reason the stinky kids at school have no friends; they stink. You can have the best personality in the world, but if you stink then you might as well kiss any chance of a lasting friendship goodbye.

On the plus side, the girl can shop, except for the heels. Even two inches was too high for me, but I had to admit they looked good with the outfit and femmed it out perfectly in the end.

Since Leah was the one that asked me for the date she insisted on picking me up. That was going to be at seven. I scrubbed three times to make sure I got any residual vampire scent off me and spent almost all of the rest of the time on my hair. I really needed to cut it. It's not super long or anything, but if it takes more than fifteen minutes to dry with a blow drier then it's too long. Everything else was thrown together at the end. I even went so far as to add a little eyeliner and lipstick. Go me!

With three minutes left I checked myself out in the mirror. High waist silk pants, check. Form fitting white tuxedo shirt open to show just a hint of cleavage, check. Matching black tuxedo cut jacket, check. Two inch high pumps, check. Fake black adjustable bow tie wrapped around my neck, check. No tattoos showing to a semi-formal event, check. Leah at the front door ringing the bell, check.

_Spirits, please don't let me fall in these heels tonight_.

Leah's demeanor was stiff when I opened the door, then I saw her jaw relax and her lips part ever so slightly.

"You…." She stopped and then smile. "You look great, Bella."

I had to say the exact same thing about her, except to ramp it up past eleven. The typical little black dress had found a new home to show off its greatness as a mainstay for the female party-goer. Leah made it work so much better than I ever could.

"Everyone is going to be so jealous of me," I mumbled.

Leah smiled and reached out for my hand. "I think that's the other way around."

"No, definitely the right way."

The door clicked closed behind me and we stepped off the porch, heading to Sue's Sentra. We hadn't even made it halfway there before my cell started ringing. I frowned as I fished it out. I specifically got this one for pack business alone and if it rang then that usually meant trouble. The problem was that I didn't recognize the number. Hopefully it was just someone misdialing.

"Hello?"

"Detective Bella."

I came to a stop and glanced at Leah who was looking at me rather weirdly.

"Special Agent Dean. How did you get this number?"

"I'm the FBI, Detective Bella; we know everything, even how to dial 411."

I pursed my lips and tried to look annoyed. It wasn't difficult. "It's New Year's Eve, Levoi. I have a stunning looking date and I'm headed to a party. Can this wait?"

The corner of Leah's mouth lifted at my mentioning her presence and the well-known fact that could make hearts hammer with a simple look.

"Actually, no. I have a problem, and if you're already dressed for a party then you're exactly the person that can help."

"No," I said. "No, no, no. This is my first date in like ever! It will not be ruined by traipsing through the woods, or down the street, or through Spirits know where. Do you know how long I've waited for this? It's going to be a perfect evening, with a kiss and with possible groping involved."

_Oh shit. I said that out loud_. _Leah's laughing. Someone please shoot me._

He sighed. "I see. Sorry to have bothered you on such an important occasion. I'll let the parents know that the one person that could definitely find their child has a date and can't be bothered. Have a nice night."

He hung up and I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at it.

"What was that about a kid?" Leah asked as her amusement was washed away.

I didn't bother answering when I glared at the phone. "I hate you."

However, I did hit the callback button.

"Her name is Ashley," Levoi said as he answered.

"You suck."

"Leave your pretty clothes on; just grab your badge and bring your date. Once we catch the perp you'll have free run of the facilities: music, dancing, champagne. I think you'll like it."

With a further deepening frown I said, "I'm nineteen."

"It's a don't ask don't tell kind of place. Trust me, it's right up your alley."

I sighed with resignation. "Where am I going?"

"Give it about twenty minutes and a ride will pick you up at the reservation clinic parking lot."

Leah had my door open and was waiting for me when I got there. "I'm so sorry about this."

She stopped me from getting in. "A lame party at the community center or a real party, real champagne, and hopefully music written this decade. Yeah, whatever. Get in the car, Thunderbird."

"Only your dad can call me that."

The next thing I knew Leah's lips were briefly pressed against mine before she pulled away leaving me with a really stupid expression on my face. "You're my thunderbird, Thunderbird. Now what's the deal with the FBI and who is Detective Bella?"

~O~

Yeah, I remembered at the last second to run back in and grab my badge. When we arrived at the clinic all the cars were being moved and we had to park on the perimeter. A few minutes later a hard thumping sounded in the distance.

"Oh no. Not a helicopter."

Leah glanced at me. "That's for us?"

"I've never flown before, especially nothing like that."

"Who is this guy?"

"He's FBI, some guy Charlie Swan roped me into helping. You know the Big Ben serial killers?"

She nodded.

"Vampires. He knew something was up then and called me in to help locate a little girl that had been kidnapped last month."

There was a nod of recognition. "And now he knows your weakness."

"I'm going to kick his ass."

The thumping was getting crazy loud as the helicopter cleared the treetops and started coming in for a landing. Well, the parking lot needed cleaning anyway. The staff of the clinic was watching from their windows as Leah and I boarded the helicopter to find the anal retentive Special Agent Dean Levoi sitting there with a pair of red headphones in each of his hands.

My hair was fried.

"Detective Bella," he said with a smile and then caught the sight of Leah.

I punched him on the arm and then tried to smooth out my hair and he attempted not to cry. Okay, I didn't hit him that hard, but he did wince noticeably.

"She's mine. Don't look, don't touch, don't flirt, or I'll emasculate you."

Leah cleared her throat and I turned to her and saw the eyebrow thing she was doing.

"Sorry," I mumbled, but I still glared at Levoi.

He bent over to retrieve something from the floor and I saw that it was another one of those evidence bags. This one didn't have the flashy red tape on it this time. Carefully, he handed it over to me. It was a hoodie and the tag at the collar read small, but it wasn't a little girl's. This was more of a small teen's jacket.

"What's this?"

His eyes flicked to Leah and then back to me. At least he was trying to be subtle.

"She knows." I wiggled the bag. "What's this?"

"It's Ashley's jacket. Her parents gave it to me with hopes that it would help."

I pressed my lips together as I realized he'd already figured some of my abilities out all on his own.

"You do it by scent, don't you? This thing you do."

"Do I look like a dog to you?" I played his question off.

"In the car, last time, I heard you take a deep whiff of the backpack and saw you smelling things everywhere you went."

Running my tongue over my teeth I tried to take his measure, how much I could tell him or how much I needed to threaten him. Levoi was a Fed so I couldn't leave any obvious marks that a coroner would find.

"Bella," Leah said as she poked me on the hip.

If I couldn't answer his question the least I could do was move the conversation on. "So, I find this girl. Where? The city? The forest?"

"We don't know. I've narrowed it down to someone at the party we're going to. The list of suspects is around two hundred people. I'm hoping you can get a scent off that jacket and find it on someone there."

"Does the Council know you're doing this," Leah asked, and not in an accusatory way.

"No." Then I glared at Levoi. "They obviously will now."

"So, they know too." He was far too observant for his own good.

"No questions, Special Agent. You know the rules," I reminded him.

"Right."

Not too much later the Seattle skyline was within view and I started getting more annoyed by the minute. The only thing that was keeping my wolf at bay was Leah's hand firmly grasping mine. My stomach flew out the door somewhere a few hundred feet up in the air as the helicopter dipped and I gasped. Wolves belonged on the ground not in the stupid air in a stupid tin can with far too many stupid windows.

It wasn't the ground we landed on, but the top of the building would have to do as I anxiously waited for someone to open the stupid door. Once the big propeller thing on top of the helicopter wound down someone on the roof ran over and slid the door open while holding a hand out for Leah.

I was next and released a breath of relief before almost stumbling in the heels I forgot I was wearing. Levoi pointed toward a glass enclosure where a few guys in suits were standing around looking annoyed and very Federal Agent-like.

Levoi straightened his tie and ran a hand over his gelled-to-death hair – like anything short of a tornado landing point blank on his head would move a single strand. The older Fed took in Leah and me with a critical stare.

"Which one is she?" he asked.

Levoi turned slightly toward me. "Special Agent in Charge Wilson, I'd like to introduce Detective Bella Swan of the Forks Police Department."

At that moment I wished that I was British so I could get away with saying, "Bloody hell," like the kid in the Harry Potter books. What Levoi had done was expose me even further up the chain of command. More white men would soon be questioning who the little copper-skinned girl was and how she pulled off what seemed like miracles.

Wilson nodded in my direction. "What is it you do… Detective?"

Well that was a loaded question and an obvious hint that he didn't believe that someone so young could be so far along the ranks in a Podunk town like Forks.

"I find people."

"Right. Well, Special Agent Levoi here seems to think you can walk on water. Pull this one off and I'll make sure you receive a commendation from the Bureau. Screw it up and I'll have your badge."

There was a sudden itch on my nose and I had a serious desire to scratch it with my middle finger. "Can we save the threats Agent Willard?"

"Wilson, Special Agent in Charge Wilson."

I gave him a single nod. "Right, whatever. Levoi, where are the suspects?"

"Fiftieth floor. New Year's Eve party. Walk around, do your thing," he explained as we took moved to the elevator. "There's an Employees Only door at the Northeast corner of the room. We'll be there when you figure out who it is."

Leah took that moment to slip her hand along my upped arm and let it come to rest near my elbow.

"Are we on a deadline here?" I asked.

"Well, obviously we'd like to get to Ashley as soon as possible, but no threats are being leveled as of yet. We just don't know what he or she is doing with her."

"Why the rush then?" Leah asked.

Levoi shrugged. "This is the one and only time we'll have all the suspects in one general area."

Wilson turned around and looked me up and down. "Just find the suspect and point him out to us. Do not approach or apprehend. We'll take it from there."

"Seriously?" I said.

The elevator stopped on the fifty-first floor and the Feds got out while still holding the door open. "They'll know us on sight, so you'll go down on your own."

Before the door closed all the way Levoi tossed in the bagged jacket I left behind in the helicopter. I caught it and looked at Leah before opening the seal.

"Sorry about all of this."

She smiled. "Are you kidding? Cloak and dagger on New Year's Eve? This is the most exciting date of my life."

I took a deep whiff and handed it to her so she could do the same. When the door opened again I looked around at the lobby where people were coming and going without a care in the world other than drinking and getting laid before the night ended. It was that recognizable. Most of the people were much older, but there was definitely a contingent of the younger crowd there as well.

"We should split up," Leah said under her breath.

"There's a kidnapper somewhere out there. I'd feel better if you were with me."

That got my arm squeezed. "I'm just as much of a wolf as you are, Bella. Don't treat me like I'm delicate. That pisses me off."

My inner wolf whined at me for even thinking of letting Leah go off on her own, but my brain won out, at least for the moment. "Fine, but if you find him before me then come to me. I don't want the FBI thinking you can do this too. We'll never have any privacy if that happens."

"Deal," she said as she peeled off and headed right while I went left.

We mingled, ate those confusing finger foods that servers were passing around on gleaming silver trays, and sipping at flutes of sparkling wine. Winding around I made it a point to pass as many people as I could without making it obvious that I was trying to pick up Ashley's scent amongst the sea of alcohol, bad cologne, too sweet perfume, and perspiring bodies. That took a while.

When we met in the middle Leah took my hand and led me to the dance floor. "Over my left shoulder; lady in the slutty red sequined dress with the fake breasts."

I flicked my eyes at her. "Her?"

"Yep."

"She's a bimbo. I thought it was a job requirement to be an airhead not a kidnapper."

Leah smirked. "The scent is on her, and the guy she is with is talking about the big sale they are going to make next weekend."

"You're sure about the scent?"

She shrugged. "Of course. That jacket has a distinct odor like something is off, artificial I think."

I nodded. "Yeah I noticed that too."

"Well, she's covered in it."

"Alright. I need to make a pass near her just in case the Feds are watching. I'll meet you over by the door. Circulate on my side so it'll look like you're still searching."

"Cool."

Leah was right on the nose about the bimbo. I almost gagged at the smell that was coming off her. It wasn't as strong as a vampire's but there was definitely something wrong with Ashley if it was as bad as this. She glanced at me as I appeared to look past her and smile as if I recognized someone and she was in the way. Making a quick but natural exit I worked myself over to the other side and kissed Leah on the side of her mouth.

"She spotted me looking at her. Act like we're talking."

Leah laughed a little and said, "But we are talking. What else am I supposed to say?"

I gestured to the corner where the door was. "Let's go over there."

When we made it to the corner I turned around and hugged Leah while I was checking if we were being watched. The blonde had her attention on something else, thankfully. I groped for the handle and backed through the doorway as we disappeared from the party.

Levoi was waiting for us with his SAiC close behind.

"It's the blond bimbo in the red sequined dress on the other side of the room."

Wilson raised an eyebrow in question, but Levoi wasted no time in moving to the monitors as some computer tech or whatever was zeroing in on her position.

"Who is she?"

He shook his head. "Nobody. She's not even on the list."

"How about the guy she's talking to?" Leah asked. "He mentioned a deal that was going down next weekend."

The tech looked up at her from his chair. "That's Clairmont . Canadian national. Political small-fry just on the other side of the border. He does deals for breakfast every day. Him having a conversation about a deal isn't any sort of proof of anything."

"You're sure that's the person we're looking for?" Levoi whispered to me.

I shot him a look and he held up his hands. "I'm just saying; she's nobody but an average citizen. If she's not on Peterson's facial recognition software then she's not worth mentioning."

Grabbing his arm I pulled him to the side while Wilson was busy on his phone trying to identify the girl.

"Am I on that software?"

He shrugged. "Well, no, but…"

"Then apparently not all the dangerous people in Washington are. She literally reeked of Ashley. If I didn't know any better then I'd…" I stopped and had myself a little epiphany.

"You'd what?"

I glanced at Leah and she shrugged, apparently not connecting to my train of thought. "Do you have a picture of Ashley?"

Levoi shook his head. "Not on me. Hold on a second. Peterson, pull up a picture of Ashley Hammond, please."

Wilson eyed us, but was too busy with the person on the other end of his cell.

It was a soccer photo of a young girl, maybe about eleven or twelve, straight thin blonde hair, and blue eyes. She could be any number of girls across the nation, completely average.

Leah looked at the screen and tilted her head before snapping her eyes at me. I guessed she finally got it. The bimbo wasn't a bimbo. She was Ashley Hammond. I sighed and closed my eyes for what I'd have to do. Something was seriously wrong with this situation and I needed to figure out what it was before more people started thinking outside the box on this one.

"What?" Levoi said when he caught our matching looks at each other.

"We need to talk in private. No ears."

There was a small closet in the rear of the room he took me to. As soon as the door was closed and he turned around I asked, "What are you hiding from me?"

He blinked and looked totally clueless. "What are talking about?"

Setting my hands on my hips I reeled in my emotions and tried to cover up my outburst. "Tell me how you became involved in this case."

Levoi puffed out his cheeks and looked away. "Typical Amber Alert. The FBI was called in because the Hammond's are important people, or they used to be anyway; Army research. They're retired now."

"When?"

"When did they retire? Uh… about twelve years ago when Lori Hammond became pregnant with their daughter. Now why are you asking me about all of this?"

I paced as I tried to put all of this together, but seriously, I had a high school education. It's not as if I was an actual police detective.

"This stays between you and me, do you understand?"

His face fell. "I can't promise that. If it's illegal and within my purview then…"

I pursed my lips and made another decision. "Then keep my involvement out of it; Leah's too."

"Okay. I promise… as long as you're not breaking major Federal laws here."

"I'm not. We're not."

"Alright, so what's the major secret?"

"That blonde bimbo out there," I pointed for effect. "She's Ashley Hammond."

There was a good five seconds of silence between us before he looked away from me and his mouth opened slightly. "That's impossible. Ashley's a month away from turning thirteen and that woman out there can't be younger than twenty-one if that."

My bet was without all the makeup she'd look about eighteen or nineteen, not much younger than me. "A lot of things are impossible, but I see them every day."

"Maybe she's a sister or something," he tried to rationalize.

"How old are the parents?"

"Forty-three and thirty-eight."

I shrugged. "I suppose it's possible, but wouldn't something like that show up on their background checks or whatever? Even then, we're these people married back then? Trust me when I tell you that even family members don't have the same base scent. They may have similar traits, but they're different."

Levoi bit his lip. "You're sure about this?"

"Deadly."

He turned to leave and I grabbed his arm. "One other thing; whatever it is that happened to her has messed her scent up badly. She smells… wrong; fake or something. I can't put my finger on it."

"Fake?" he replied mystified.

"Artificial, sometimes people on too many drugs, prescription or otherwise, give off a similar smell. It's one of the reasons I don't like to go to hospitals. Everything is wrong there. It throws me off balance."

He nodded thoughtfully. "I'll have the pilot take you back to La Push, unless you want to hang out for the party."

"I'll ask Leah."

When we returned to the monitors Wilson gave both of us a lingering look, as if we'd snuck away for a little grab-ass during the middle of an investigation. Whatever.

"We're done," I whispered to Leah. "Do you want to hang around or go back to La Push?"

"That's it?"

I nodded. "We're just here to point. They'll take it from there."

Her face turned a little sour. I knew she wanted to stick around for the outcome whatever it might be.

"I want to dance."

Great. I hate dancing. "Okay."

When we exited the room I discreetly kept an eye on Ashley while Leah enjoyed turning around in place with me. I enjoyed it too, don't get me wrong. I'd just feel more comfortable not being on FBI spy cam and a couple dozen feet away from a girl that apparently aged six or seven years overnight.

"Go to the restroom with me?" Leah asked as she took my hand.

It wasn't a request and as soon as we neared the door to the women's room I knew why. We entered and Ashley's scent nearly drove me back out the way we came.

"Leah," I warned.

She held up a finger to her lips and walked over to the sink to turn on the water to wash her hands. I followed suit and ran my fingers through my hair as the toilet in one of the stalls flushed and the door opened, spitting out the girl of the hour. This was such a bad idea.

Ashley eyed us and approached, setting her matching clutch on the counter. "Nice party, huh?"

Her voice grated on my ears. It was high-pitched and syrupy sweet. I figured she'd pop some pink bubbles to go along with it in a moment.

Leah nodded and dried her hands while I tossed my fancy linin towel in the provided basket. "I like your dress."

Ashley beamed and looked down. "I know. It's so cool, right?"

Cool?

"I mean… elegant," she said.

I sighed and looked to Leah before turning my eyes back to the blonde. "If you're in trouble, Ashley, we can help."

Her face went cartoonish white with bulging eyes and open mouth. "How…?"

"We're kind of different ourselves," Leah offered.

Ashley's eyes darted back and forth. "Did my mom and dad send you? Is that why you're here? I'm not going back."

I held up my hands defensively. "We're not making you go anywhere. We're just offering help. And no, they didn't send us."

"What are you? You're not human. I can smell it."

The restroom door opened and a couple of women entered tittering about some guy. I leaned forward and whispered. "Why don't we find somewhere less… busy."

"No," she said and took a step back. "Leave me alone."

Leah apparently couldn't take no for an answer. "Ashley…"

Her arm blurred backward as I realized what she was about to do and I shot in front of Leah when Ashley's fist hit me in the chest, blasting the air out of my lungs and sending me flying backward into the wall. Let me revise that. She sent me flying back through the wall and into the main area of the party. Sheetrock went up in a powdered mess as I slammed onto the floor and slid halfway across the room knocking several party-goers flying along with me.

"Ow…," I groaned.


	6. Hello Kitty

_A/N:_ Disclaimer: In first chapter. Your comments, reviews, and or questions are always welcome. I don't want to pander to you for reviews by answering each one with a generic "thank you," but if you have any questions I usually answer each one as best as I can. Those almost always get a personal reply.

A/N: This is a short one, because I didn't want to leave you hanging with the semi-cliffy. R/L issue. I'm going to try to update every two days from here on out so I won't run into this problem again.

**Chapter 6**

_December 31, 2005, Saturday (still)_

I've battled over half a dozen vampires, personally, and I've fought with shapeshifters nearly twice my size in training virtually every day for the last few months. Can someone please tell me I didn't just get my bell rung by a freaking twelve year old in a brand new whatever she is in a bimbo's body?

The world tilted and swayed for a few moments as I remembered how to breathe after having my chest pounded by this chick's fist. I swear, it felt as if my sternum was cracked and my lungs had caved in. Nobody had been able to do that to me.

There was plenty of screaming to go around as most everyone was staring at me while I tried to get up, fell flat on my face and then tried to get up again. Some guy, bless his skeezy heart and greasy hair, tried to help me up.

"Are you okay?" he asked and I looked at him like he was stupid.

"Fine," I mumbled. "Just getting my second wind."

"Right," he replied uneasily.

"Federal Agents! Nobody move!" Special Agent in Charge Wilbentson – or whatever name was – yelled over the noise.

I wondered if that ever worked. I mean, supposedly there was something like two hundred suspects to a kidnapping in the room. In my mind that meant these weren't very good people, in general. Would someone actually think yelling something like that in a room full of not very good people would cause anything but a stampede to the elevators and stairs?

There was a loud crack, a high-pitched scream and the sound of more mayhem in the restroom. That bitch better not have touched Leah or I was tossing her out of the fiftieth floor window and seeing if she could survive the sudden stop at the end of the Bella Express.

Pushing frantic people out of my way, I made it back to the restroom. Leah was standing there in her high heels glaring at a wall and pointing to something, or more likely someone.

"I'm kickin' your ass!"

She spun around and pulled a sink clean out of the wall and tossed it. There was another shriek. Water started spraying everywhere and I gave up trying to make it through the hole I was thrown out of. Apparently, I don't make a Bella-shaped Wile E. Coyote hole when I'm thrown through a wall. So, I took the door instead.

"Nobody hits my girlfriend like that!"

She disappeared into a stall and I heard the distinct sound of fist meeting face – I know because I tend to make that sound a lot; I'm intimately familiar with the meaty thump.

"Think you're all that because you sprout a few inches and grow a pair of tits overnight!?"

I stopped just outside of the stall when I heard the toilet flush and sound of a girl half drowning and screaming.

"Still struggling? Have another!"

The toilet flushed again and I stuck my head around the broken stall door to see Leah holding both the girl's arms twisted behind her back in one hand, her high heeled clad foot pressing on the back of her neck holding her head down in the bowl, and her other hand waving in front of the auto-flush sensor.

"Trying to help you, you stupid twat! How's that bimbo hair of yours holdin' up now? You better pray that Bella isn't hurt, because you're spending the night getting swirlies if she is."

The girl screamed again when she had the chance.

"Leah," I said. "I'm cool."

She turned her head and smiled. "Hey, baby. You okay?"

I nodded. "Let her up. I think both of us can take her."

Levoi made it inside the restroom and took in the place. "What happened?"

Holding my hand up at him I motioned to the stall. "Gas leak."

The girl reared back and slipped on the floor onto her butt and was blubbering. Leah didn't have an ounce of compassion in her body at that moment.

"Stop your blubbering. Nobody is falling for your innocent little girl act anymore princess."

Levoi moved in and whispered to me. "I think the kitchen is on the other side of the room. There shouldn't be any gas lines anywhere around here."

I looked at him oddly. "Then make up your own excuse, because three women sure didn't cause all this damage, did we, Special Agent Dean?"

When he finally clued in Levoi looked behind him. "Well, I suppose it could have been a different kind of gas. What am I talking about? There is absolutely no way of hiding something like this. If this girl is who you say she is then there's too many witnesses, too much surveillance."

"Witnesses to what exactly?"

I watched as Leah handed Ashley a few paper towels, but wouldn't let her get up off the floor.

"What do you mean what?" Levoi nearly stammered. "There's a gigantic hole in the wall!"

"Gas explosion. And that's sheetrock. Trust me when I say being thrown through that isn't that hard to believe. I'll act like I'm a little sore and insist on being treated at the tribal clinic."

"What about her? You've already pointed her out."

I shrugged.

"Bella?" Leah said and I looked back at her. "You might want to take a look at this."

Leaning to my right I took in the contents of the stall once more only to find a preteen girl sitting there in ripped denims and a Hello Kitty tee wiping at her nose and looking back and forth at me and Leah like she was in serious trouble. I blinked and shook my head. My life is just far too strange for words.

"Well, it seems we just solved your case for you Special Agent Dean. Apparently the lady in the red dress realized she was busted, caused an explosion somehow, left the girl and escaped through the ceiling."

We both looked up to the acoustic ceiling tiles. There were a few of them jarred aside.

"Nobody is going to believe this for a second," he muttered.

"Why not? It's all perfectly believable from my standpoint, as long as certain people cooperate." That last part was delivered with a glare at Ashley who promptly cowered.

"Where was she hidden at all this time?"

I pointed up at the ceiling. "It explains why the lady in the red dress was here – either delivery or pick-up. Call it white slavers or something ridiculous like that. I find the more outrageous the story the more likely people in power believe something more reasonable, anything more reasonable."

"There are too many holes in that theory, Bella. For one, she's perfectly coherent and has no restraint marks."

Someone cleared their throat. We leaned over and looked in the stall again to see Ashley holding her hands up with nasty red welts on her wrists. "Is that too much? I can make them smaller."

Levoi rubbed his forehead before looking at me. "When this cools down you're telling me everything."

I looked at him like he said something funny. "No I'm not."

"Bella, you just can't dictate terms like…."

"Company," Leah stage whispered and started helping Ashley to her feet. "Behave or I will kick your ass again."

"What in the Sam Hill is going on in here?" SaiC Wilberson said as he stuck his head in the hole I made.

Leah set her hand on Ashley's shoulder. "Found your girl. Are we good or what?"

The Agent's mouth actually dropped open. You really don't see that too often. "Ashley Hammond?"

The girl nodded.

~O~

The sun crested the horizon before we even arrived at the FBI field office on Third, near the waterfront. We'd already been interrogated – I'm sorry, debriefed – about what happened in the restroom. According to Leah and me we were washing our hands and something exploded. I found myself out on the dance floor, miraculously unharmed and Leah was under the sinks. She saw a flash of red go up into the ceiling and then found Ashley on the floor in the stall. The end.

We never wavered from the story, so they really didn't have much to hold us with; after all they were the ones that brought us in this whole thing in the first place. We had no dog in this fight. At least Agent Wilbur was convinced that the woman in the red dress was actually the suspect they were looking for. That was a plus for our side. FBI commendation here we come! Or not.

"Wilson," he snapped. "My name is Wilson; not Wilbur, or Williamsburg, or Willard. It's Wilson! Special Agent in Charge Wilson!"

For effect, I bunched up my eyebrows. "Really? Huh."

Leah was waiting for me downstairs when I they finally released me around ten o'clock. Levoi was with her, standing there looking immaculate even after being up all night. Me on the other hand, I looked like crap. My outfit was ruined, there was wet sheetrock matted in my hair, and I wasn't in a very good mood at all when he looked at me to answer his questions. It was so obvious on his face.

"Don't ever call me again. Erase my number from your phone. Don't ever come on Quileute land again. Forget that you even know me. It's not my job to do your job, which I don't even get paid for by the way."

He had a pained look on his face, but I didn't let up.

"Do you see this outfit? It's silk. A hundred and thirty two dollars down the toilet; another forty-seven-seventy-nine for the shoes, and twenty dollars for the party tickets that we didn't even get to use at the Rez. To top it all off, I'm late for opening the garage. Those cars don't fix themselves. So in the future, Special Agent Dean Levoi you can kiss my sweet Quileute ass!"

Turning to Leah I held my hand out. "You ready to go, baby?"

When we exited the building I looked from right to left and then forgot that we didn't have a ride back to the Rez. Wonderful.

"He's driving us." Leah said and pointed at a car. "That's his over there."

"Great. Another three hours of this crap. Was the helicopter busy or something?"

"Do you really want to go back in a helicopter?" she asked.

The thought of leaving the ground again made my stomach twist. "No."

By the time we got out of the city I was starting to come down off the anger ledge when Levoi opened him mouth once more.

"I'm sorry things turned out that way. I had no idea she was like you."

Leah groaned, probably expecting me to go off the rails again.

"Ashley is nothing like me. I don't know what she is. I'd advise talking with her parents and looking into them if you want answers. Leave me and mine alone about the subject."

"Then how do you do the things you do?"

I snorted. "I don't do anything. I have a particularly sensitive nose. That isn't a crime, Levoi. Besides, I think I said on a number of occasions, no questions about what I do."

"That was before you decided to not work with me."

I glared at him in the rearview mirror and then reached into my jacket to retrieve my Forks Police ID. "This doesn't read FBI. I don't receive a paycheck from the government, and I've committed no crimes. In anyone's book that means you have absolutely no right to ask me jack squat."

He glanced at me. "That badge is bogus. You and I both know you don't work for your father."

Leah sat up. "Oh shit. You need to shut up now. Billy Black is her father. I don't know where you dug up information about Charlie. He's a nice guy and all, but Bella was born, bred, and raised Quileute."

"Pull over," I nearly growled.

Levoi's eyes furrowed. "We're in the middle of the forest."

"Either pull over or I'll rip the door off this car and jump. You want to explain to Agent Wilbur why you were holding us against our will?"

The car veered off the road and came to a sliding stop. Leah and I got out and I slammed the door before we started heading off into the woods. I heard Levoi get out of the car.

"Bella," he yelled. "This is stupid. Get back in the car and let me take you home."

"Damn," Leah said. "I liked these heels too."

Handing over my badge I smiled at her. "No need to lose them. Want to ride my wolf home?"

She smirked and looked back to the road. "Sure."

~O~

_January 7, 2006, Saturday_

All-American Rejects was playing on the weekly countdown, I was elbows deep in the engine compartment of a '85 Grand Prix changing out a water pump. The sun was shining for the first time in two weeks and everyone was taking advantage of the fact by taking down all their Christmas decorations and hauling their trees out to the front yards for the recycling truck to come along and make mulch out of them, and all was right with the world once more.

I should have taken that as a potent of doom.

When I turned around to grab the rebuilt pump from the work cart by the car guess who was standing there?

"Gah!"

The little blonde shit that knocked me through the wall was still wearing that stupid Hello Kitty shirt and looking at me all wide-eyed. I don't get startled by people anymore. My wolf saw to that. Sound, sight, scent, all of those are enhanced to the point where I can tell exactly who is sneaking up on me, from what direction they are coming, and what they had to eat for breakfast most of the time. There she stood not making a sound or emitting a single pheromone. If I wasn't looking directly at her I'd swear there was nobody there.

"Whatcha doin'?" she asked.

I looked out front and then back at her. "What are you doing here?"

"I got bored. Mom and Dad suck. All they want to do is hook things up to me and see how I work, so I left."

Looking out front again I glanced back at her. "So, you're by yourself?"

"Uh-huh. Why do you have so many tattoos?"

With a frown I grabbed the water pump and bent back over to install it. "I like tattoos."

"Didn't it hurt?"

"No."

"Is that a bird on your back? It's weird looking. I don't think the tattoo guy did a very good job."

Rising back up, I glared at her. "It's a Thunderbird. It's supposed to look like that. How'd you find me anyway?"

"I tracked your scent. You smell like a dog; has anyone told you that?"

Apparently, my typical glare didn't work on her. "It's a wolf. Won't your parents be looking for you?"

"Probably. I hope they don't call the FBI again. That was annoying."

"Yeah, well, whatever."

Grabbing the restraining bolts I leaned back over and tighten them in.

"I thought you were the FBI, but you work on cars. What were you doing at the party?"

Turning my head I saw her leaning on the fender to see what I was doing. "Looking for you, but you weren't really missing, were you?'

She shook her head. "I was hungry and Mom and Dad won't take me to the right places to eat."

"Right places?"

Ashley nodded. "Are you actually a wolf or do you just smell like one?"

"That's a personal question."

"I can turn into different people."

When I pulled back to grab a hose it was like I was looking into a mirror. There Ashley stood looking exactly like me down to the grease under my fingernails and the clothes on my body.

"Fuh…"

"Your hips are really wide. Did you know that? It feels weird. But you've got good sized boobs. You should show them off more. Guys like that and you can feed better."

I blinked and watched as her shirt morphed to show just about all of my cleavage. "Don't do that. Change back."

"But…"

"Change back. It's creepy."

Ashley did change, but it was an older version of herself, made just a little younger than me. She kept the black hair and lengthened it down to her butt, kept the copper skin and changed her eyes to ice blue. Her jeans were back, but they were skin tight this time and she was wearing a black cami to bring out her skin tone.

"Is this better?"

Anything was better than looking like me. "It's fine."

"Cool. I like looking older."

"Makes it easier to feed?"

She nodded. "Big time. Guys really like hot girls and it makes it easier to get them alone."

I really didn't like where this was going. "So you eat these guy?"

Her brows furrowed. "What? Eww, no. I feed off their sexual energy."

"Sex?"

"Again, eww. No, just their energy." She shrugged and picked up a ratchet to look at it for a second before putting it down. "Mom calls me a succubus, but I don't know about that. I don't have any bat wings or anything. Aren't they supposed to be demons? I'm not a demon. I mean it's not like Satan's my father or cousin or something."

"Succubus?"

"Uh-huh. That's why I was at the party. It's like an all you can eat buffet and I don't even have to leave the room. I just suck a little energy here and there all night long. That's why Mom and Dad are all bent out of shape about it. School nights, you know?"

"School nights." This girl was most assuredly five cents short of a dollar. "Are your parents succubae?"

"Uh… no. I don't think so at least. If they were then they'd understand." She wrinkled her nose at the old water pump I had pulled from earlier. "You understand though, don't you? I mean you totally took my punch and went through the wall without even getting hurt, and your girlfriend… well, there's not a lot of people that can beat the crap out of a succubus. You know what it's like to be different."

She stopped and looked up at me. "Oh… um, can you not tell my mom and dad that I said 'crap'? They restrict my internet access enough without pulling it altogether; like I don't hear worse every day at school. They're so lame."

I licked my lips. "Ashley, what are you doing here?"

"I'm bored! God, don't you listen? School doesn't start up again until Wednesday. Can we go to a club or something? I'm hungry."

"It's the middle of the day. No clubs are open and neither of us are old enough to get in anyway."

"Pfft. Like I need ID to get into a club." She got a pained look on her face and rubbed at her lower abdomen. "Are there any boys around?"

Tossing my wrench on the cart I grabbed a shop towel and started wiping my hands. "How exactly do you feed?"

She shrugged. "I just hang around people, you know? Dad calls it absorption of radiant sexual energy."

I cocked an eyebrow. "I didn't know that that there was actual energy to absorb."

"Oh yeah, totally. Anyway, I can just stand there and suck it in sorta, but that's boring. That's why I like to look older and go to clubs. There's dancing there. That's always fun."

Trying to keep this girl on track was becoming annoying. "What's it do to the guys when you feed?"

She shrugged. "Nothing. I'm totally like a solar panel sucking up energy from the sun. It's out there already; I'm just taking some for myself."

Oh good. It looked as if I wouldn't have to kill a twelve year old vampire-like creature this morning. Always look on the bright side of life.


End file.
